Earlier this year. Rye News asked for your questions to put to the officer responsible for policing in Rye, the area commander for Hastings & Rother. In the first of two articles, Chief Inspector Jay Mendis-Gunasekera has been telling us about his team, his priorities, and how he thinks policing has changed for the better. You can hear the whole interview on this week’s Ryecast podcast.
Outside Rye police station, Chief Inspector Mendis-Gunasekera is waiting to have his picture taken for Rye News. He greets every passer-by with a polite “good morning”. His officers do the same. Respect is a big thing for the chief inspector – a point he lands several times during the interview. “There’s a level of service I expect from my officers. They should be polite and professional at all times.”
Confidence in police
He’s frustrated by recent news stories and court cases involving the Metropolitan Police in London, but says it’s up to the police to restore people’s trust. “We have to root out those kind of issues. It is not acceptable. They really upset me. What’s come to light, and how officers and staff have acted in ways that should not be policing, is clearly not right. I encourage anyone – inside or outside the police – who sees any bad behaviour to challenge it. In the past people have not felt confident to report misogyny, sexism, homophobia, and racism, but I think we’ve turned the corner.” As the area commander for Hastings and Rother he has 65 officers in his team, based across a huge area of East Sussex. “I would be really disappointed if any of my staff acted in that way, but I know it’s not happening in my area. The officers and staff I work with are really exceptional. They work really hard to support the public.”
Born in Sri Lanka, he’s married with a son. “I’m visibly from an ethnic minority and when I see things like racism and sexism, for me it’s morally wrong. I want this generation of police officers to formulate their own ethics and ideas around what their standards are, and for the older officers to pass on their good experience, and not bad habits.”
Helping people
As a servicing police officer for over twenty two years, he describes himself as a career detective. “I always wanted to become a barrister or join the military – my family are all in the services. I like to look after people and what I love is that I can actually make a difference to people’s lives. I’m really invested in keeping those most vulnerable protected in our communities.” He says it can sometimes be really tough, not least in his previous role as a detective inspector in the child protection team. “One of the most significant incidents for me is when I found an eight year old boy who had been abused. He was only little and he hugged my leg. I was nearly crying. It was probably five years into my service and it brought it home to me that I was doing something that affected people’s lives for the better. There’s a lot of bad things going on in the world and if I can be there with my team to look after the public, then I couldn’t be happier.”
Get in touch
Although his patch includes Hastings and Bexhill-on-Sea, Chief Inspector Mendis-Gunasekera has huge affection for Rye and the surrounding villages. “What’s not to like? It’s a beautiful place. The air is clear and the beach at Camber is great. The people are really nice. It’s a lovely, picturesque, and beautiful part of the country. My officers love attending this area. The community is great.”
So what’s his message to Rye News readers? “If you’ve got a problem or you identify issues like anti-social behaviour or drug dealing – in fact any criminality in the area – get in touch through Crime Stoppers as it all helps to build up a picture of what’s happening. In other areas of East Sussex that I’ve managed I’ve been really effective, so please contact us if you are seeing problems that we are not aware of. We will address them and I promise I will do something about it.”
There’s more from our interview with Chief Inspector Mendis-Gunasekera in next week’s Rye News when he answers your questions on the uncertain future of Rye police station, tackling crime and anti-social behaviour, and the battle with drugs – plus there’s more on how he needs local people to help him police the town effectively.
You can hear the whole interview on this week’s Ryecast. Just search for Ryecast wherever you get your podcasts or visit www.ryecast.org
Image Credits: James Stewart .
“There’s a level of service I expect from my officers. They should be polite and professional at all times.”
Part of being professional is to appear professional. It is unfortunate that what was always recognisable as a Police uniform has degenerated to something approaching overalls, that must be a SusPol decision, to appear in public without wearing a hat/cap/helmet is a personal decision and to be deplored.
The public want their Police to look like Police, not local authority workers. Senior officers should set a good example.
What upsets me most is the advert on the TV showing two policemen sitting in a car eating sweets talking as if they were infants, not a good message to send out to say the least!!
I feel the police do an excellent job but there needs to be more of a police presence in Rye. To be seen walking the beat and visiting schools etc so that children appreciate from an early age that they are approachable if you have a problem BUT the police need to be respected too! I know that there have been so many cut backs but the Rye police station needs to be open more particularly at weekends when there tends to be a lot more people in yoen!
Hopefully the Inspector will tell us all soon, what is the future of our underused police station, looking very sad at the moment,in desperate need of refurbishment on the outside, and life in the Inside.
One of my most treasured possessions is my Grandfather’s Police Long Service Medal, awarded for 25yrs service in The Met. In his case, he walked the beat in N London all through the Blitz, and had already policed Fascist rallies in the East End and the Jarrow marches. So he’s one of my heroes, and I have great respect for the Police. But, they are just ordinary people like us, with all our virtues and flaws, and they can only work within the prevailing economic and social parameters in which they find themselves. We should have high expectations of those who police us by consent, but we do need to factor in a few other considerations too. The comments so far go a little way to explain the range of attitudes and expectations that the Police have to meet in performing their role. There’s the nostalgic desire for Dixon of Dock Green community policing and the expectation that kids should respect officers. I’d love them to as well, but setting aside our less deferential society, we all know what’s influenced contemporary perceptions of the Police, and that’s a whole other conversation… But I feel for the Inspector, bcs he’s trying to balance contradictory public desires, as evidenced by the comments. We want effective, formidable officers meting out justice and safeguarding our communities, but we don’t want a paramilitary force on our high streets… We want modern policing, but we also want beat Bobbies with whistles, Custodian helmets and shiny boots… There are lots of contradictions. But the biggest contradiction for me is posed by the Government’s expectations of the Boys in Blue – they seem to believe they’re social workers, drug counsellors and mental health practitioners. (Oh, and the culture war militia too, arresting anti-monarchists and ‘Just Stop Oil’ protestors!) Crime enforcement’s a big enough job on its own without having to plug gaps in public health and social provision. So the Police, quite apart from having to deal with their own demons and to rehabilitate their image, are burdened by the threadbare nature of public services and the consequent impact that has on society. We want the Police to act against anti-social behaviour, drug-dealing, violence against women, County-Lines etc etc etc. But rarely does anyone consider why these are pressing social problems in the first place… What’s happening in society more broadly, and why? Like the NHS, the Police are supposed to be the end of a line of complimentary public services – the backstop. More and more, as primary health, mental and social care services are hollowed out, they’re left to hold back a storm tide alone. So, I wish Insp. Mendis-Gunasekera the very best of luck, and if we want to assist him, we need to demand our political representatives restore functioning public services and essentially rebuild British society, bcs Police don’t work in a vacuum. We need decent education, health care, upward mobility, dignity, life chances… I sound like a Victorian social reformer, but that feels like what it’s come to!!
Surely the answer to local policing if our police are too busy to safeguard our residents at night,is to call on locals like in the past, to walk our streets until the early hours, all they were given was a uniform and no wages, and everyone felt safer,unlike today.