Leicestershire Specials contribute 8886 hours in response to Covid-19

Leicestershire Police’s Special Constabulary has contributed 8,886 hours to support front line policing since 27 March as part of the force’s response to managing the demands of Covid-19.

A total of 76 special constables have completed an impressive 8,886 hours of deployment and 1,120 duties between 27 March and 17 May, averaging at 116 hours per officer.

Chief Constable Simon Cole said: “I’m extremely grateful for the support given by the Special Constabulary over the last eight weeks. Thank you to each and every one of our officers who stepped up to support us on the front line, 8,886 hours is a truly brilliant effort.

“It’s periods such as this that demonstrate exactly what our Special Constabulary does best; providing resilience to the force and support to our communities when it’s needed most. I’d also like to thank the employers across the city and county who released their staff members to perform their role of Special Constable. This has been a national effort and I’m thankful that so many people wanted to play their part in helping to keep the communities of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland safe.”

Under Operation Formidable, officers were placed into teams and worked a minimum of two shifts per week, with some officers volunteering to work up to six days each week.

Superintendent Adam Slonecki, lead for Operational Policing and Leicestershire’s Special Constabulary, says: “This is an incredible example of people giving up their own time to help their communities. Our officers have made an outstanding contribution and worked hard to maintain public confidence through their balanced and pragmatic approach to policing during this difficult time.”

Supt Slonecki says the level of commitment has been fantastic, with some officers making the tough decision to move away from their families in order to help the force.

“The feedback from across the force has being overwhelmingly positive and demonstrated that the special constables have provided a professional service alongside their full time colleagues.

“The intention of Operation Formidable was for our special constables to support us in managing the initial impact of Covid-19 and to add resilience to our workforce numbers. In total our special constables responded to 1,586 incidents and made arrests for burglary, theft, assault, drugs possession and drink drive offences, while also conducting road checks, dealing with a number of road traffic violations and seizing illegal vehicles.”

He says that now the Government has moved into its next phase of managing the pandemic, the force is also moving to the next phase of how it will utilise the Special Constabulary in the coming weeks and months.

“I’m extremely grateful for their dedication and readiness to protect their communities, and also to their employers and families who have supported them to do so.”

The training to become a special constable is at the same level of that undertaken by full-time police officers. They hold the same powers and responsibilities as regular police officers and manage the role alongside their normal employment.

One of the special constables who stepped up is Katrina Inness who works for Boots UK.

“I’m so grateful to Boots for supporting me to be a part of this. It’s been incredibly rewarding to be able to offer my community some positive support and do my part to help keep the people of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland safe. I feel proud to be a special constable and to have helped in this national effort against Covid-19.”

Special Constable Katrina Inness

Leicestershire Police has a total of 192 special constables who play a pivotal role in helping to police Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

To find out more and express interest in joining Leicestershire’s Special Constabulary, please visit www.leics.police.uk/couldyou