Profile - chief constable of Nottinghamshire

This profile is due to be published in the Sunday Times sometime in September/

A week in the life
Julia Hodson

Nottinghamshire’s first female chief constable Julia Hodson got a sobering reminder of the ultimate price a police officer can pay shortly after taking up her job in June. She attended a memorial service.

“I spent some time with Tracy, the widow of PC Ged Walker who was killed trying to stop a criminal escaping in a car. That was in 2003 and feelings are still raw here. He would have retired last weekend after 30 years service “

Hodson, 51, says everyone congratulated her when she took the £131,000 a year job. “ But some were quite dismissive about the area. There is still a phase ‘gun city’ and the notion that Nottingham is a violent place. For all the evidence I see I genuinely feel this is undeserved now.”

Her predecessor Steve Green had presided over four successive years of dropping crime statistics. When he left crime was at its lowest for eight years. She says one of his achievements was: “to have taken out most of the significant organised crime groups in the county – the cause of much of the very violent crime a few years ago.”

Only burglaries have nudged upwards and Hodson says this is a high priority.
She says one key is prevention both in developing greater public awareness and devising interventions to cut re-offending.

She is also worried the economic downturn might result in rising crime. “When people are under financial challenges it creates stress which can lead to domestic violence and if people have less money they’ll maybe move towards acquisitive crime.”

Hodson, a Derbyshire miner’s daughter, followed a conventional path from patrol officer to Chief Constable – though she also has two university degrees and joined the police accelerated promotion programme.

She was still on the beat in Merseyside during the miners strike. “Women weren’t involved in policing civil disorder so male officers went from Merseyside and across the country and women officers - there weren’t very many then - were left to police the streets. Perhaps that was part of the change towards accepting that women officers could play a full role in police duties.”

Right now Hodson is still getting to know Nottinghamshire where she oversees four divisions – with 2,500 officers and more than 2,000 other staff and support.

She meets the police authority fortnightly and her chief officers three mornings a week. She’s trying to meet as many ordinary people and civic and business leaders as possible. She has also joined patrol officers and met the victims of crime.

“When I joined I don’t think I ever envisaged being in a management position. I do miss the contact with the public and the best bits of the job are when I can steer towards meeting them.”

She says once her five-year contract is done, she may retire. “I’ll have spent 30 years as a police officer. University beckons. Maybe I’ll do an art history degree. Something completely different.”