The Police Federation’s new national chair has been named as National Board member and firearms and Taser lead Steve Hartshorn.
Steve becomes the second national chair to be voted in by police officers in England and Wales and takes office from tomorrow (1 April)
Cambridgeshire branch chair Liz Groom has congratulated Steve on his election success and said she looked forward to working with him in the coming years.
Liz said: “This is an incredibly tough role and Steve takes over at a very challenging time for the police service.
“Our own survey has found huge levels of dissatsifaction among police officers with morale at an all-time low and record numbers of officers wanting to leave the service.
“Pay and conditions are a massive factor for many officers with some finding it difficult to survive on their salaries so one of the new chair’s first jobs will be to re-open the dialogue on remuneration and try to get a proper pay offer for members.
“Steve has our full support and together we will do everything we can to get the best possible deal for Police Federation members.”
Steve joined the Metropolitan Police in 1995, before moving to the Met’s Firearms Command. He became a Federation rep because he wanted to help colleagues that were going through a difficult time.
He said: “I feel incredibly honoured to have been elected the next national chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales.
“I would like to acknowledge the hard work of Brian Booth and Ché Donald for standing as candidates and running very strong campaigns – they have my respect for being professional throughout.
“My sincere thanks goes to everyone who voted for me, from the National Council nomination stage, to the membership for getting involved in the vote. The level of support and encouragement I have received has helped me through the process and means a great deal to me.
“I am looking forward to working with the National Council, the National Board and our members to seek the very best we can for policing, and with support, I genuinely believe we can make our voices heard to secure a better deal for policing.”