From bombs and bullets in Iraq to a different beat

KERRIN Smith is dodging phone calls. It is 10 o’clock and time to collect her thoughts ahead of a busy shift. Not so long ago, Kerrin was dodging bullets and rockets in Iraq.

It was all a far cry from her new job as chief inspector of police for the peaceful Scarborough and Ryedale command; and an even longer away from her days in the fashion business.

Once her passion had been designing clothes, but that all changed one night when the police staged a stake-out in one of the stores she managed at the time.

There had been a series of ram-raids and a tip-off had been received that Kerrin’s shop was next on the hit list.

“As a young 20-something-year-old, I thought it was hugely exciting,” she says. “We didn’t get ram-raided that night, but it was my first insight into policing. And after seven years in a cut-throat industry full of targets, I was ready to do something more socially responsible.”

Now her passion is policing, which is more than solving crimes and locking up bad guys. As Chief Inspector, she aims to make people’s lives better, especially victims of crime.

“Talking to people and helping those who are really distressed is for me as important as making arrests. That is one aspect of policing; the other is the individual in the wake of what’s happened to them.” During a 19-year-career, Chief Insp Smith has worked in different roles in uniform and CID. Her last was to lead North Yorkshire’s volume and serious crime team. Difficult though that job must have been, it pales in comparison to the 12 months she spent in Iraq.

“What was going on there really disturbed me. I saw how people’s lives were being devastated and I felt we had a duty to help rebuild them.

“So when an opportunity came up to go to Iraq, I felt really strongly that I wanted to do something to help.”

She didn’t tell her family at first, knowing they would try to talk her out. Half an hour spent in Chief Insp Smith’s company gives you the feeling she isn’t easily put off. But on the first night in Basra, even this highly confident woman began to doubt herself. She was scared, very scared.

“It was terrifying; constant gunfire, rockets hitting the ground and the ground shaking when bombs went off.

“The first night I just cried and thought I need to go home, I can’t do this. What on earth am I doing?”

As morning dawned that fear began to be replaced by her sense of duty. She gave herself a talking to and began preparing for the role she had longed for, director of training for the country’s newly formed police force.

It was a high-profile job. Chief Insp Smith worked alongside ministers from Iraq’s Ministry of Interior, and even General Petraeus, the coalition’s overall commander.

“I was working with the hierarchy at a strategic level and I was the only British cop,” she says. “My role was to develop training packages for the 14 academies on behalf of the government.”

Not surprisingly, hours were long; twice what she would work in this country and seven days a week. Did she realise the magnitude of the position she had volunteered for?

“Not at all. You don’t know what you are going to walk into until you get there. But I went to make a difference and I know I did that.”

Supervising the training of so many rookies would have been demanding enough, but there was an even more difficult lesson. How to police an Islamic country that was used to oppression, but overnight had hard-to-fathom democratic principles thrown into its legal mix.

Chief Insp Smith’s influence was to bring in that element of policing to a predominantly military force.

“It was absolutely the right move. The police were a state-run function, completely away from the citizens and they never had the interaction we have here. You can’t have the police so far removed from individuals.”

She also radically changed the way police officers went about their business. Once if they suspected a terrorist cell was in a house they would shoot everyone inside. Things had to change if Iraq was to break the shackles of tyranny.

“How I introduced democratic policing included making rational decisions. If someone has a bomb, we taught officers to stop, think, pause and take prisoners.”

It was a huge change of culture; for the first time the police were expected to employ the rule of minimum force.

“It was sowing seeds. Every police officer that came in would have these principles as part of their training package. And some I spoke to, individually, really wanted to see change in their country.”

People such as the policewoman who every night sheltered her five children at five different addresses to protect them from insurgents who regularly targeted officers and their families.

That way, when she was followed home only one of them might be killed.

“I asked her why she still wanted to be in the police and she told me, ‘If I don’t do it, none of my children will stand a chance’. You’ve got to give these people everything you can.”

By the time her 12 months tour of duty was over, Chf Insp Smith was more than ready to come home. But for an officer so used to being in the thick of things, sleepy Ryedale might seem a breeze.

Not exactly. Iraq won’t be the only hotspot in which Chf Insp Smith is likely to find herself, because now she is one of only 20 international hostage negotiators.

She’s already been in action in a role so classified that she can’t talk of it.

“It was an honour to be selected. As a manager you become removed from victims but as a negotiator you’re not. It keeps me grounded and while it can be exhausting and emotional it is very satisfying.”

One thing she can talk about is her new role as chief inspector for Scarborough and Ryedale. While there may be no bullets flying, she says her new role will be no less demanding.

“I don’t look at the environment I’m in. It’s the individuals in that environment who interest me. They all have the right to be protected.

“Whatever I do I am completely excited and the challenges here are going to be huge.”

For seven years crime in this part of England has dropped and the detection rate has risen. Chf Insp Smith now faces trying to prevent a predicted national increase in crime from coming to North Yorkshire, despite fewer resources, funding and staff.

“It’s about maximising every opportunity we have,” she says.

People always say there should be more bobbies on the beat, but Chief Insp Smith believes that is only part of the picture; the trick is to get the balance right. “It’s not just about walking up and down the street. It may make one road safe, but you can’t be everywhere at the same time. It’s about making the best use of PCSOs and wardens, but also about empowering the public.

“We also have things that are not visible and it’s critical to make sure vulnerable people are safeguarded.”

This is something of a personal crusade. One of Chief Insp Smith’s previous roles was head of North Yorkshire’s protecting vulnerable people unit.

“I helped set that up and I can see the difference it has made and the staff there who are so dedicated to such a difficult emotional role. I have that at my heart for Scarborough and Ryedale.”

In Chief Insp Smith, the district has an impressive new chief inspector and perhaps the residents should thank that ram-raider who targeted her fashion store all those years ago.

She might not be there if he hadn’t.