Reflecting Back: A Year On

Today marks a year since I had the amazing privilege of sharing my very personal first blog - A Copper’s Tale - with you all. I wanted to mark this anniversary with a reflective piece describing what has happened since the blog.

The Beginning

The man who believed in me and went out of his way to help me share my story, Chief Superintendent John Sutherland, needs no introduction. I am one of the lucky ones, in that I am able to call John a true friend. Not only is John an incredible Police Commander within London, but he is a confidante to me. John is the person I call when I am at my lowest and is one of the first to be told when I have something to celebrate.

A year ago, John was kind enough to care, which he will say is no big deal. However, to me, and I’m sure the majority, it means just everything.

My Motivation

My motivation for publishing A Coppers Tale was simple.

• I wanted to show that Police Officers come from a wide range of backgrounds and that they bring with them some unique experiences - which in turn can be used as powerful tools to engage with the public, to prevent crime by working with young people and partners to offer alternatives and to deliver the best service possible for the people, by the people.
• I wanted to highlight how my life was changed by some remarkable people not giving up on me.
• And finally, I wanted to tell my story in its rawest format - to show who I am and where I’ve come from, and that anything is achievable if you put your mind to it.

Those motivations have not changed and are my reasons for writing this follow up blog.

Reflection is a powerful tool for me and by looking back over the last 12 months, I can see that I have had a really positive year. I’m proud of that. At the same time, there have also been some bumps in the road. Not everything in the year has gone according to plan.

The Greats

This is an open and honest reflection of the past year. And 80% of it has been great! We all know that the not-so-great always seems to overshadow the positive for some reason, but of course, only if we let it!

Throughout the year, I have learnt how powerful stories are:

• One February morning, I was at our Hendon Training Centre for the final passing out parade of the then Commissioner, Lord Bernard Hogan-Howe. I was invited as a guest by my very close friend, Robyn Williams. As I was walking round the centre, seeing all the recruits getting their uniform ready for their final parade, I was approached a PC. He said to me, “Mr Forbes it is a real pleasure to meet you.” I immediately thought he had got me confused with the Mr Forbes who is a Chief Inspector. After I cleared up that he wasn’t mistaken and that he knew me, he said to me that he had been following my story on Twitter and that I had motivated him to become a PC. He had asked to be posted to Brixton to work with young people.

I was humbled, shocked, amazed - full of emotions. It was honestly the best thing anyone has said to me since I joined the Police Service. It also motivated me to continue being active on Twitter and to use it to promote my passions, interests and work with young people. I immediately thanked the officer and wished him all the best in his career.

• One sunny afternoon in Croydon, I was planning a Jobs Fair for young people to be connected to some amazing partners. , I was checking my Twitter account as I normally do, when a message popped up from the National Diversity Award company. It stated that I had been nominated for a Positive Role Model award. I was later told that a kind-hearted soul had nominated me for the ‘inspirational work’ I have been doing with young people.

Again, I find it hard to describe in words how I felt, but I think I was in shock. This had never happened to me before and I am totally full of appreciation that someone, somewhere had understood my story and the reasons why I shared it. What a true blessing and I remain so grateful to everyone who voted for me, which resulted in my being shortlisted for the final process.

• Throughout my time across London working with the Trident Gang Command, I met with many partners. These partners were from diverse backgrounds, some larger than others and some being formed directly by the community, for the community. They all brought their own unique benefits and I it was a real privilege of working with them, forming new partnerships and introducing new referral pathways for young people involved in Gangs. What struck me was the endless amount of passion. One day I saw a video from an inspiring father called Faron Alex Paul. Faron was showing the world how young children, carried knives for ‘protection’. Faron dedicates his work to engaging, educating and preventing young people getting involved in knife crime. I saw this video and immediately felt the passion Faron had. I wanted to meet Faron, so I reached out to him via Twitter. A few weeks later, I met him in East London.

I met him in Stratford and we spent a good hour or two discussing how the Police need to do more (I agreed) and how we can and must all work together (Community, Government, Police, NHS, Charities and Education) in order to help with this knife crime pandemic, . I could go on for a very long time about Faron and his work, but it was important for me to mention this because, without the tool of Social Media, I wouldn’t have been able to hear Faron’s story and, later, to arrange a meeting with him. Faron, I’m one of your fans, keep it up!

• The final highlight of the year has been all about support from my peers, from my family and from the public. Being supported is a gift, one which I cherish every day. It allows me as a person to feel empowered and when times get hard or dark, it shines the way through to the light. 

When my blog was published, both externally and via our internal communications, the amount of emails, phone calls and messages I received was mind-blowing! I will let you all into a little secret. The hour before my blog was published I asked John to hold off as I was so scared that colleagues would totally not understand why I published my blog and, being totally honest, I didn’t want to experience that ‘hate or dislike’ from colleagues. John was incredible, he just sent me a text message which said “Published, enjoy Ben I’m so proud of you!”. What can I say, John of course was right, it’s a gift he has! 

I have honestly seen the best of the MPS and this is thanks to the support I have been given. I have been supported by so many people, from all walks of life, from all of the rank and file and from all backgrounds. I have in the past few months joined an incredibly passionate and innovative team, who are working constantly to help make a difference to our workforce. This work has shown me a totally new side to policing and the focus in this HR Transformation team centres around support. How do we support our officers to be the best they can; how do we support each other at our times of need and how do we foster a learning culture across the organisation? This type of focus has really brought it back to me that I have had a remarkable career already, thanks in no small measure to all the support I have received.

The Not-So-Great

I strongly believe that it is important to talk openly about the negatives or not-so-great aspects from your reflection. The last year has truly been a journey. I have learnt that a journey will be bumpy in parts and will not always be as simple as you would have initially expected it to.

This year, I have encountered people who just don’t see the world like I do and I have had to come to terms with that. Below you will find some key examples of that and how I reflect on those examples to move on from them.

• I have experienced peers not understanding or accepting my motivations for publishing my story in the first place. There has been opinion shared with me that I did this for my own self gain and not to make any real difference.

What I have learned from this is the importance of being true to myself and not overly being reliant on what other people think of me. I will not be able to satisfy everyone and as long as I know I am true to myself and that I have made every effort to speak to that person on a personal level, I am happy with that.

• I have been turned down for development opportunities, which saw me question myself and ask whether being open and transparent on my thoughts and experiences, especially via Twitter, has had an adverse effect on me.

This has been a journey for me and there have been times where I have had to really dig deep and reassure myself that my reasons for interacting with communities, partners and individuals via Twitter, for sharing my story in the first place, and challenging my thinking on how we can do improve our engagement with communities, were honest and genuine.

• There have been occasions where questions have been asked on why am I connected or working with senior leaders within the MPS and nationally. Am I getting too big for my boots? (or words to that effect).

This brings me back to one of my great aspects of the year; support. I formed several professional relationships with colleagues who hold a senior position following the publication of my blog. I have also approached senior leaders in order to further develop myself. I have ambitions just like everyone else. For example, when I was young in service, I had a huge interest in Public Order policing. I knew of Kelvin Baldwin from a borough in East London, and knew he was an Advanced Public Order CADRE Commander. So, I contacted Kevin and asked if he would mind mentoring me in Public Order. Now some will say that as Kevin is a Detective Superintendent and a senior commander, I shouldn’t have emailed him. But I simply wanted to learn and develop myself. 

Kevin supported and showed an interest in me. As a result, I was able to become an accredited CADRE Runner, oh and of course received one glass bottle to the jaw, but I will let the boss off for that one ha!

These were not-so-great moments are part of my journey, but they do not take over the journey I am on. By speaking out about these challenges, I hope it will help me to overcome them more easily next time - and show that we can speak about these openly, without fear.

And Now….

Now, I continue my journey of reflection, on really improving who I am as a person, with a focus on my wellbeing.

I continue to overcome challenges with incredible support from you all.

I continue to foster a culture which accepts different backgrounds, which supports the workforce to be innovators and which moves from a closed culture, to one which becomes a supportive and empowering, allowing you to be unique.

I continue to share my story with pride, to help break down barriers between communities and the police service.

I continue to work with you all to make a difference, especially to our younger generation and to strive to do better for them.

I continue to serve, as always in clear hope for a better future.