Police chief highlights a force change
The glass ceiling has been well and truly shattered at Kent Police, Chief Constable Alan Pughsley told Kent Crime Commissioner Matthew Scott at a meeting of the force’s performance and delivery board.
Mr Pughsley said: “It’s been really good to see the change in demographic within the organisation in recent years.
“Nine years ago, when I joined Kent Police, we had 12 chief superintendents all of whom were male.
“That caused me some concern, but we’ve done a huge amount of work over the last few years in changing the culture so the very best people – men and women – feel empowered and trusted and supported so that they can, if they so wish, put themselves into the promotion processes.”
Mr Pughsley reported: “Today we have 11 chief superintendents and, of those, six are female. That’s just one element of us not just talking the talk, but showing that it really is happening.”
But he said he would always give promotions to the best candidate – whether they are a man or woman.
Mr Scott said: “It’s good to see more women coming through the organisation and being promoted, and properly supported to do so, with role models like Assistant Chief Constable Jo Shiner, six really good chief superintendents and others all the way down the organisation.”
According to workforce data published by the Home Office, giving figures to March last year, 896 of Kent’s 3,259 officers were women, which represents 27.4%.
That figure is up from 24.9% in 2010.
More than half of the force’s 289 PCSOs (police community support officers), and 63% of its civilian staff were women.