Staffordshire Police Federation chair Phil Jones has paid tribute to members for their work throughout the coronavirus pandemic and praised them for “running towards danger while others run away”.
Phil, who is now in his second term of office as branch chair, said officers should be proud of the way they tackled the challenges they faced during the unprecedented national health crisis.
He said: “I would like to thank my members for the tremendous work they do keeping our communities safe despite the challenges in the background.
“Policing is a thankless profession and often subject to scrutiny and poor headlines. My members run towards danger everyday when others run away.
“My members have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic and should be proud of their achievements.”
Phil joined Staffordshire Police as a cadet in 1996 and became a regular officer in 1998, although his career could have taken a different path as he had already lined up an apprenticeship as an electrician in a local foundry.
He has predominantly served in uniformed roles ranging from response, neighbourhood and firearms and is also part of the Staffordshire Police hostage and crisis negotiator cadre.
Phil first became a Police Federation workplace rep in 2011 and was serving as a response sergeant based in North Staffordshire when he took over the branch chair position from Keith Jervis in 2019
He said: “I joined the Federation as I believed this was the best route to try to make a difference.
“The Federation gave me access to senior managers and invitations to meetings that ordinarily I wouldn’t have access to.
“I have had help and support from the Federation in the past and I always found it to be professional and a good source of knowledge.”
Phil set out with a clear vision to modernise the way the branch communicated with its members when he became chair in 2019.
He said: “When I took over as chair, I wanted to increase visibility, accessibility and communication to my members.
“We now have a Police Federation app, podcasts and a welfare vehicle. This allows the Federation to do business in a different way outside of the traditional office hours.”
He said he had also been working hard to try to overhaul members’ perceptions of the organisation and how it operates.
He explained: “The Federation is viewed by some as only being needed when they are being investigated and I have tried to change that view and culture.
“So I hope we are now considered to be a lot more than that with the work we have been doing around welfare, supporting colleagues and making representations on their behalf.”
Phil said the main priorities for his second term in office revolved around building on the solid foundations that have been laid during the last couple of years.
He said: “I have secured funding for a new welfare vehicle, I am the lead on a project to develop a memorial garden within the grounds of Force HQ and we have some exciting initiatives moving forward.”
And he said pay and conditions at the time of a cost of living crisis would remain among the biggest challenges faced by the Police Federation and police service in the coming months.
He said: “I consider pay and conditions to be an important issue moving forward. We are seeing wholesale increases in the cost of living and over the years police officer pay has seen significant reductions of up to 18 per cent.”
