Next Police Chief "hopeful" successor will come from within ranks

Wednesday 31 August 2022

The next Chief of Police could be someone from within the force, the current head of the organisation has predicted.

Robin Smith said that it was also his ambition that the next Deputy Chief would be an internal appointment.

Mr Smith shared his plans after the next Deputy Chief of the 214 officer-strong force was proposed for final approval by the States Assembly.

Scott Hall is a former senior officer in Northumbria Police and, if appointed, will serve in the role for three years. 

No local candidate applied for the job.

However, Mr Smith said that he was determined to make sure that Mr Hall’s replacement would be an existing Jersey officer.

Pictured: Police Chief Robin Smith: "We are constantly looking to the future".

“The lack of local candidates was down to timing,” he said.

“It is a cycle, and it wasn’t that long ago that I promoted an officer [Alison Fossey] to Detective Superintendent, the first female Superintendent in the SoJP. 

“In my three years’ tenure, I have also appointed two Chief Inspectors. That is a strong recognition that not only do I want to ensure that we succession plan, but we are actually doing it.

“In addition, there have been a number of promotions to inspector and sergeant, all of which have been internal.”

Mr Smith said that Mr Hall’s three-year role – the first time that a fixed-term contract had been used in the force – would give him the time to plan for an internal successor.

“We are constantly looking to the future, and I am confident that the next Deputy and potentially the next Chief would come from within our ranks. That is my ambition,” he said.

“Of course, you need someone with the right level of experience, and that is sometimes not easy to get within a smaller jurisdiction. I will be looking to second some of our potential senior officers to other jurisdictions to expose them to different experiences and challenges.”

He added: “For the Deputy Chief role, there was an option to have a fixed term over five years but the Jersey Appointments Commission and States Employment Board thought three years was the right length of time to look at future succession planning.

“When we spin the next cycle, we might have a number of candidates for Deputy. I suspect and hope there will be several of my senior leaders banging on my door saying: “I’m your next Deputy”, which would be a fantastic thing.”

Two years ago, the force piloted having ‘Designated Deputies’ – senior officers who would step up to deputise for the Chief on a six-month rolling basis. 

However, that was scrapped after it was found to be too onerous on the incumbent officer, who also had to carry out their existing role in addition to Deputy Chief.

For the past year, Detective Superintendent Stewart Gull has been Acting Deputy Chief Officer.