PW_1_2024

Article

Walking in the Shoes of Another Hannah Wheeler QPM, Thames Valley Branch “I still haven’t decided what I want to do with my life!” is a comment I hear so often from my daughters. My reply to them is “neither do I!” and it genuinely feels like that. I have no idea where the last 30 years have gone, but it has been a rollercoaster that I would do over again.

I took a gap year after school, to work and travel, before doing a degree in Cultural Studies at Portsmouth University. I did not have a particular job in mind, but I knew I wanted to do something varied that was not a 9-5, so I answered an advert for the Metropolitan Police. Then, after a three day interview, I started training at Hendon in 1993. My first posting was at Ealing and Acton, and I loved the shifts, teamwork, and camaraderie. It opened my eyes to criminality, but also things I had no idea police dealt with, such as sudden deaths and vulnerable people with mental health issues. Much of it a social work role, but with real opportunities to help and make a difference. I moved to the Domestic Violence Unit at Southall. Then on promotion to Sergeant, my team at Wembley and Kilburn were surprised when I turned up at my new station heavily pregnant. I found it was possible to combine family and work, taking on a variety of roles, including custody, and diversity sergeant, where I helped introduce quiet rooms, and rooms to breastfeed. On promotion, I applied for a post at Training School, as an Intake Inspector. It was a wonderful job looking after new recruits, and setting up the Support and Solutions team (SOS) to support with dyslexia and study. Officers still contact me now to tell me they remember me from Training School, with one recently writing to thank me for supporting him when his daughter became seriously ill. I wanted to return to operational policing and applied for a post at Twickenham, where I was one of ten female Inspectors. The opportunities to be Rugby Bronze Commander at the RFU and The Stoop were a real bonus. I also led a national Home Office pilot to reduce anti-social behaviour, and helped roll out the Met’s first mental health street triage pilot. I had not thought about promotion as I did not think I would enjoy the job. Then I was temporarily promoted to Chief Inspector on Neighbourhood

Policing. I failed my first attempt at the promotion process, but I tried again, passed, and was posted to Hammersmith. This was in a partnership role, where I also managed the Special Constabulary and Volunteer Police Cadets. The enthusiasm and joy that our volunteers bring to policing is infectious. In 2017, I applied for a secondment to HMICFRS. This proved to be a turning point in my career, as I led the first National Mental Health Inspection and wrote the ‘Picking up the Pieces’ report. In March 2020, the world changed as the global pandemic struck. HMICFRS stopped all inspection activity, so I volunteered to assist the National Policing Co-ordination centre (NPoCC), and was tasked with sorting out pandemic PPE for national policing and overseas territories. I assembled a virtual team, who procured, and distributed PPE from a national distribution hub in an old aircraft hangar, set up with Royal Logistics Corps help. I wrote PPE guidance to support the use of medical PPE in policing, and arranged testing and vaccination. I was unexpectedly honoured with a Queen’s Police Medal for this pandemic role, that ended up lasting two years. On returning to the Met (after several attempts at promotion) I started working with the IPA, supporting students, and learning about all the opportunities the IPA can offer. I met then International Executive Board General Secretary, May-Britt Ronnebro, when I hosted some Swedish Police Recruits studying through Linnaeus University, and joined , seeing so much potential to help and develop serving officers. My IPA membership has really complemented my ethos of always volunteering for opportunities if they crop up. Volunteering introduces you to new people, further opportunities and brings challenge. It has led me to meet interesting people and new opportunities, while building a network of valuable colleagues and friends, which is what the IPA is all about.

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POLICE WORLD Vol 69 No.1, 2024