THE badge of Notts Police was once worn with pride because other forces saw you as "tough" – thanks to its high crime rates.
Tearing up that notion has been a long, hard fight, its new Deputy Chief Constable says.
While Notts will probably never have crime rates as low as some rural areas, Sue Fish says, its badge is now more likely to be worn with pride because crime is falling.
Mrs Fish took up her post on June 14, having first joined the Notts force as a police constable in 1986.
Now second only to the Chief Constable, she has spoken of how the force has changed over more than a quarter of a century – and says it will still cut crime in the face of substantial budget cuts.
Mrs Fish worked in a number of detective and uniformed roles and was made an Assistant Chief Constable for Notts in 2003 after returning from four years with West Midlands Police.
She arrived back in Notts around the time it was gaining a national reputation for serious crime and fatal shootings.
"Those first couple of years were incredibly tough to work in and at the same time we were being pilloried for violent crime," she said.
While the force had now come through this "almost perfect storm" there will "always" be a threat from organised crime.
"What having to deal with it did do was give us knowledge of these crime groups and an understanding of the risks," she says.
Since then the force has faced another major challenge – delivering £43 million in budget cuts, with more to come.
Planned Government reform will see changes to the police pension scheme, a reduction in the starting salary for PCs and the possibility of direct entry appointments – meaning those qualified enough can start in the higher ranks instead of beginning as a beat bobby.
Mrs Fish said that, despite reform, the main job of a police officer was "still the same" – arresting criminals and getting convictions.
"It's not just in policing that there are changes being made to terms and conditions," she said. "We know the pension is still going to be the best in the public sector.
"Whereas some aspects have changed since I walked the beat we have got different kit – I was issued a handbag and a small truncheon as opposed to a stab vest, and women weren't allowed to wear trousers.
"Some of the powers we can use have also changed and we now have Blackberrys and Tetra Tab laptops in police cars.
"But a burglary is still a burglary – rape is still rape, we have victims and offenders."
"The responsibility for keeping a million people in Notts safe is a huge one – but if there's a reason for getting out of bed in the morning that is it.
"There's so much more we can do on top of the changes we've made over the last eight to ten years.
"We need to keep working in partnership as austerity hits other organisations – we use the phrase 'shrinking together not shrinking apart'.
She added: "We used to have a reputation as a tough police force because of our high crime rate, but you sit there and think 'that's not right'."
