26-page job ad for police chief who is ‘client centred’ and ‘victim focused’
THERE was a time when police forces employed leaders for their ability to fight crime.
But the modern chief constable must also be an ‘agent of change’ and a ‘pioneer in blue-light collaboration’, according to a job posting.
Such terms are among a long list of police jargon – or ‘ploddledygook’ – in the 26-page advert for applicants seeking to become the next chief constable of Northamptonshire.
The posting says that the successful candidate must be ‘ resolutely clientcentred and victim-focused’. It adds that the force’s next boss – who will earn up to £150,000 – must also ‘be able to see beyond the horizons of convention to make the paradigm shift’.
Published by Northamptonshire’s police and crime commissioner Adam Simmonds, the advert says that the force needs ‘ a new kind of leadership capability to reframe dilemmas, reinterpret options, and reform operations’.
Ironically, it concludes by admitting that ‘such statements of corporate aspiration can feel like yet another list of jargon and management-speak’.
Last night, the advert was ridiculed as ‘mind-boggling’. Steve Jenner, of the Plain English Campaign, said: ‘The job advert posted by the police commissioner is a prime example of what we call ploddledygook – complete rubbish written by the police.
‘Over 20 pages of complete tripe masquerading as a meaningful communication with a specific purpose is an absurd waste of public money.
‘Anybody who writes a job advert which includes near-criminally abused examples of language such as “blue light collaboration” and “evidence-based thought leadership” – and the mind-boggling “enabling behaviours critical to success” – deserves to be held up to ridicule and public contempt.
‘When we first saw it we thought it was a joke.’
Mr Jenner added: ‘ People should expect clear, direct and purposeful language from the police ... make no mistake – it is only a matter of time until an organisation speaking to itself like this starts to speak to the public in the same way.
‘This job advert should be withdrawn and completely rewritten. What kind of candidate would this piece of nonsense attract?’
Northamptonshire’s existing chief constable Adrian Lee, who is leaving in July, is described in
‘A criminal abuse of language’
the advert as someone who ‘engenders a strong collective sense of mission and purpose’.
Mr Simmonds was the Tory candidate in the 2012 police and crime commissioner election in Northamptonshire. Then 35, he was the youngest new commissioner to be elected.
He is currently under investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission for allegedly sharing information relating to a criminal investigation with third parties, which is a breach of data protection rules.
Northamptonshire’s crime rate has risen by 12 per cent in a year to more than 45,000 incidents, latest figures show.
In response to criticism of the job advert, Mr Simmonds – who earns £70,000 – said: ‘Anyone who knows me knows I am a straight talker, but it is a fact ... that senior police officers have to understand the type of language used in the advert. What I want from our next chief constable is someone who can talk to politicians and judges as easily as they can their own staff and members of the public.’