The first interview with North Wales' new police chief

Ms Blakeman took over from Carl Foulkes who retired last week after 30 years in uniform. She has been a senior officer for a number of years, serving as deputy chief constable of the West Mercia force in 2017 and most recently as deputy chief constable at Gwent in 2019. Ms Blakeman has a background in fighting organised crime and as a tactical and strategic firearms commander.

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Last year figures showed that rates of crime overall in North Wales were down. But the force faced challenges with sexual offences up 8.3%; violent crime (against a person) up 11.2% and robbery rates up 23.4%.

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In a wide-ranging interview with the Local Democracy Reporting Service Ms Blakeman committed to focusing on these areas

How does it feel being North Wales Police’s first female chief constable?

“It’s incredibly humbling and a privilege..

“I’ve worked with lots of male and female colleagues throughout my 30-year career who have been outstanding – and some really outstanding female colleagues, so to be in this position to lead lots of colleagues to pave the way for future chief constables is a privilege, and I don’t take that lightly.”

What’s your first impressions of North Wales and how does it differ from your previous role?

“I was really struck by, and it is a very tangible feeling, the officers and staff who work in North Wales being very connected to their communities, and that is very evident when I speak to police officers and staff and community members.

“And that passion, in terms of being able to deliver to the communities for the communities, is evident. That doesn’t mean I’m saying it isn’t present in Gwent where I was previously, but it feels very connected here because lots of our staff and officers come from the local community, so they know it very well because they have been born here, grown up here, so they very much care what happens in their local community, and I think that’s really valuable.”

How will you tackle so called ‘county lines’ gangs to stop drugs and crime from being imported from the cities?

“There has been some really good work courtesy of officers and partners to be able to tackle that particular issue, but also done jointly with colleagues in forces across our region.

“They tend to work very collaboratively to prevent the problems from moving out of one area and into another and preventing those sorts of issues, and that’s something we’ve got to keep constant pressure on because we know that type of criminality exploits people’s vulnerabilities, and it causes a real issue in our communities. So from that point of view, it is an ongoing mission to tackle that with intelligence, (using) good use of stop and search and good operations that seek to tackle, reduce, and hold back that opportunity for North Wales to become a place where that can happen. That is an ongoing part of what we do in policing and keeping our communities safe by ensuring that doesn’t get a grip or (take) hold of a local community.

“I don’t think it is unique here. It is a way of being able to move drugs and sell drugs, and that market extends to exploit, really cruelly I think, vulnerability and cause that fear in communities, and I think as a whole policing service, along with the national crime agency, we take a whole system approach so we can reduce it, and it is understanding where those opportunities lie and keeping that pressure up, but I don’t think it is particular to North Wales, but it is something we’ve got to keep a close eye on and make sure we keep on top of.

What will be your main focus as Chief Constable of North Wales Police?

“I think delivering on what the public expects from policing is what I want to be able to focus on.

“That reaches across the board. It is not just about rural communities and county lines; it is also around the service that we deliver, particularly to victims of domestic and sexual abuse, sexual violence, all those areas.

“With the vast array of the types of incidents that we as police get called to respond to, it is about making sure we give a really good service and where crimes happen we investigate and bring that offender to justice and that we have the ability to prevent crime from happening. So I really want to focus on our role in policing the community and, at the same time, build on that trust and confidence that communities have in us and should have in us to be able to police them fairly and inclusively.”

Is North Wales a safe place?

“I think North Wales is a safe place to live, but I think we can’t be complacent about that, and we need to continue to make sure that we take the opportunities to prevent; we take the opportunities to ensure where there is a criminal group that we target it before it starts to increase. Certainly my position is about making sure intelligence is good and preventing crime before it happens, and where we aren’t able to prevent it before it happens that we work hard to bring those causing that misery to justice and prevent it from happening further.

“As we look across North Wales, communities differ, so within our rural communities, certainly, I know our rural communities worry about burglaries, thefts, the loss of their machinery and equipment and in terms of that ability to be able to prevent that from happening, and that makes a real difference in our communities that are struggling at the moment financially.

“That’s really important for our rural communities. Across our communities, no matter where you are, domestic abuse is a very key factor that makes a huge impact on victims’ lives. That is important across the board. Across our more urban areas, things like antisocial behaviour, county lines, the impact of the night-time economy, all of those things are really important to our communities, and it is about understanding those in the context of that local community and delivering on that.”

Sexual and domestic abuse figures are comparatively high in North Wales. Why is that?

“From my perspective, reporting to us is a good thing because we know, particularly for domestic abuse victims, that will have happened a number of times before they had the confidence to come to the police and potentially for sexual abuse victims (too). So from my point of view, I want people to tell us about it, and I want them to have the confidence to contact us, and we’ve certainly got specialist officers in place to respond and deal with that, and to support the victim.

“Whilst North Wales is higher in terms of the amount of people who have the confidence to report it to us, I would continue to encourage people to tell us if they have been the victim of any type of sexual violence or abuse because those perpetrators could go on to cause further misery, and we want to prevent that from happening.

“I haven’t got any cast-iron reasoning behind that (abuse figures being higher). It is something I’m going to be looking at to understand in more detail. But my message to the public would be don’t hold back from telling us. Let us know because we would want to know about it. I’m looking to prevent those abusers who seek to target victims, and the only way we are going to do that is by more reporting.”

The country is going through a cost-of-living crisis. Is this having an impact on crime in North Wales?

“We are monitoring it at this moment in time to see whether or not we are getting changes in the type of crimes that are happening.

“Certainly, we are very alive to it, and we are aware of ensuring that we are able to respond to that. From a local position, looking across North Wales, it hasn’t been that we are seeing any changes in criminality, but the opportunity is there because of exploiting communities and from an opportunity to make a profit from others’ positions.”

With money so tight and after years of cuts in policing, how do you feel about the amount of money North Wales Police has to work with and how will you best use those funds?

“Nationally, with other chiefs, we are looking at that in terms of what the current situation means for us across policing.

“We are very aware that local communities pay towards policing, and we make sure we are focusing on the things that make a difference to our communities. I’m responsible for delivering on those priority areas, but also, what I want to make sure of, in terms of that additionality in terms of money coming, is that it is focused on the things that are relevant to our communities.”

Would you support a one-Wales police force?

“My position is that we deliver policing to our local communities, and I want to deliver what is right for our local community. In terms of a one-Wales police force, I think that’s very much a political position to take. From my position, policing is about delivering local communities and the priorities that are relevant to them to reduce crime and to prevent it, and I’m going to be fully focused on that.”