The Chief Constable of Gwent Police, Jeff Farrar, will retire this summer after 35 years of policing service, it has been announced.
Jeff Cuthbert, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Gwent, will now begin the search for a replacement for Ch Con Farrar and described him as “a hard act to follow”.
Ch Con Farrar began his career as a constable 35 years ago in Cardiff. He joined Gwent Police in 2009 as an Assistant Chief Constable, taking up the role of Deputy Chief Constable in April 2011.
He was confirmed as the Chief Constable in November 2013 after carrying out the role in a temporary capacity. He succeeded Carmel Napier, who was effectively forced into retirement by then Police and Crime Commissioner Ian Johnston.
He has overseen restructures to the force saving £42 million, brought about by UK Government cuts to the policing budget.
His reign was recently praised by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary. During an 18-month period, Gwent Police went from “Requiring Improvement” across the board to being rated as “Good” overall.
During his career, he has planned and commanded some of the most high profile events in the UK including the NATO Summit in 2014, two FA Cup and Carling Cup finals, the Ryder Cup in Newport in 2010, various rugby internationals, international cricket and world championship boxing events.
He was awarded the Queens Police Medal in the 2014 Birthday Honours list.
Thanking the Chief Constable for his positive contribution to policing, Gwent PCC Jeff Cuthbert, said: “It is with regret that I announce that I have received notice of the intention to retire from the Chief Constable of Gwent Police, Jeff Farrar.
“His contribution to policing and wellbeing within Gwent has been outstanding and he has served Gwent Police and the people of Gwent with great distinction during his time of service. He has done a fantastic job and has shown that he is a strong leader who has the support of officers, staff as well as our partners in the community.”
He added: “He will be a very hard act to follow and I am confident that he will continue to play a leading role in public life, but in a different capacity. I want to thank him for the support and encouragement he has provided me with during this first year of my tenure. I am grateful that he has given me sufficient notice which will enable me to look for a suitable successor in a timely manner.”
CH Con Farrar, said: “I have been very extremely privileged to have served as the Chief Constable of Gwent for the last four years and would like to thank the current Police and Crime Commissioner, Jeff Cuthbert, and the former Police and Crime Commissioner, Ian Johnston, for their advice and support whilst I have been in the role.
“The last four years have presented countless challenges, but I am confident that my successor will inherit a more effective and efficient force.
“I have been proud to serve in the police for the last 35 years and will miss many friends and colleagues inside and outside the service, but always remain immensely proud of all those people that service the communities here and across the country every day.”
Hopefully the new Chief Constable will overhaul Gwent Police and get the service visible in our communities again.
We have suffered the failings of reactive policing for far too long…..lets go back to basics and a system that was proven to work.
I do agree with your postings about visible policing but it is the PCC that sets the agenda and it is him that we need to persuade. The Chief Constable has the responsibility of implementing the policy of the PCC and can be removed by him.
Maybe therein lies the problem Richard.
Perhaps the PCC has too much power ?
Surely the PCC ,( in all police forces )should have an input but not be able to dictate policing policy.
The best people to decide on policy are surely the Chief Constables with years of training and experience ?
The PCC role should surely be to ensure that the force is carrying out the policy and procedures correctly and to make forces more accountable ?
The PCC replaced the former Police Authority ( a panel of people ) which was a move to reduce costs – in reality the costs have increased,as many PCC’s took on board additional back office staff.
Prior to his current role the PCC was a County Borough Councillor – in Local Authorities policies implementation is overseen by a group of Councillors.
Here we have a single person with no experience of policing,directing the Chief Constable – is that why current policy appears not to be working ?
Are we once again suffering the Accountancy Syndrome ie: the number of serving police officers have been reduced to save money -leaving us with little or no visible police presence.
Central Government must shoulder the blame for years of budget cuts.
An article in yesterdays newspaper stated that Chief Police Officers in England and Wales have informed the Government that policing is now at crisis point.
We are we listening to a PCC with no polocing experience if this is the case we have a huge problem on our hands. This role of PCC needs to be ablished. It cost too much and the power of this role is going thier heads. Surely once again polcing should be left to the police. In my younger days this was the case and the police was run much more effectively.
It seems that it is the PCC who needs to be more accountable – to the public.
The police in Britain police with the consent of the public, or at least this is the idea. I don’t think they have ever been left to their own devices but were directed by a ‘police authority’ made up of magistrates and councillors in the main part. The problem with this was that there was very little accountability and the authority itself used to appoint members.
The Conservative coaltion government changed all this in 2011 and from then on the police would be directed by a directly elected commissioner. In my view there is no problem with the idea, at least everyone knows who the commissioner is and can write to him/her, arrange to meet and ultimately remove them via a democratic election.
The idea falls down when the electorate is apathetic and few bother to stand for the position or vote in the election. Like any form of government the electors end up with the government they deserve.
Years ago I worked in a factory. There was this chap who ran a machine and after set up he just sat watching it run all day.
You don’t do much I said. If I’m working hard the machine isn’t he said.
Flood the streets with police until crime tumbles and keep them there.
If the police were known to wonder down my lane at 2 in the morning my garage won’t have been broken into twice.
With no ilegal income it just might force a would be thief to get a job.
I reckon the £12 billion foreign aid budget could pay for it. Better than giving it to African warlords so they can buy German cars and Russian guns.
What we have lost with the Reactive ( or Response ) policing we have in Gwent Police – is the deterrent factor and element of surprise.
If police were patrolling the streets especially during the early hours, they would have reasonable grounds to “stop check” individuals/vehicles – thereby disrupting the criminal element within our communities.
I’ve said it before and ,I’ll say it again – most good police work involves gathering intelligence ( as to who is up to what; where;when and why ? )and an element of luck.
Quite a lot of police work involves luck – many an old time Booby will tell you tales of incidents where they’ve walked around a street corner ( or up a back lane ) and caught someone redhanded.