“There’s life after the police” - Ruari Hardy's message as he looks ahead to the end of his tenure

Friday 25 October 2024

Guernsey’s outgoing Chief of Law Enforcement has looked back on his four decades in the service.

40 years is a long time to dedicate to anything, so stepping away from a career that has taken up most of your life must feel like a big change, and for Ruari Hardy, that change is coming fast.

He will step down from Guernsey Police at the end of this month, and has already got his plans firmly in place. 

“It’s going to be tough. It very much is part of your life and it will be quite a big vacuum. I look back on 40 years, on a lot of hard work, some really interesting times, and some really interesting investigations and situations.

“It’s been a privilege to work with all the people I’ve worked with. The people I’ve met whilst working as a police officer. Some of the individuals, both good and bad. 

“I’ve been very, very lucky. Really. It’s been a great journey.”

Pictured: Guernsey Police Chief Officer Ruari Hardy on duty during the Royal Visit in July.

New vocation on the horizon?

A vocation is something different to a normal job. It takes over a part of your life, a part of your identity. It’s safe to say working in the blue light services are very much vocational. It becomes a part of you to your core. So what does Guernsey’s soon to be former-Head of Law Enforcement think about life away from the service? 

“I do have a plan. It does involve going into what I’d say is another vocational career. I’m not speaking about it at the moment as I need to conclude this. I’m going to have a couple months off. I can have November and December, and then this new chapter in my life will kick off in 2025. 

“So yes there is life after policing and hopefully, some of the skills I might have learned will be transferable into what is going to be my second career.” 

Mr Hardy’s career did not start in Guernsey. It has been a home since the early 2000’s, but he has worked across the UK, including the London Met. When looking back at his career, it seems those times left a mark that is hard to shift. 

“There are individual cases or investigations that you’ve done, that you look back on, particularly in my younger days. 

“I was a homicide detective in London, some of the inquiries we dealt with were so challenging, and had so many difficult elements to them, whether it’s firearms, or communities who had a total distrust for police and to get them onboard. 

“One of the things that has always been really important is the work with family liaison, continuing with the family, victims of crime, or if people have lost their lives, dealing with families after a sudden and unexplained death. 

“I’ve always been very passionate about that family liaison work, and trying to ensure that we deliver to families, good communication and support.

“Some of the people I’ve had the privilege of working with, not only in policing, but in legal support, other agencies, fire, ambulance or any of my colleagues in the blue light services. It’s just so difficult to pin it down to one particular thing. It’s just been an absolute privilege.”

New Sheriff, same town.

Mr Hardy will step down from his position in just a matter of days. Damian Kitchen, who has been appointed to the most senior role in Bailiwick Law Enforcement by the Home Affairs Committee, will take over the helm. You can read more about that here. 

What advice does Mr Hardy have for his replacement?

“He’s got to be his own person. It’s one of those things that, now I’m stepping away from the role, I have to fully step away and leave it to others.

“My advice is that the people he will be working with, his colleagues and people from all the agencies, are there to support him, and they will. He’s got a phenomenal team that he will be taking on the leadership of, and I just wish him every success.

“It is a very busy job, there are a lot of issues, there are a lot of things going on across law enforcement at the moment, and working closely with Government and the Committee for Home Affairs, so the role will keep him busy, let’s put it that way.”

Mr Hardy is right of course. There is still work to be done. Divisive stories this year involved Guernsey Police and their use of force, and the new overhaul of the complaints process, which puts in an additional barrier that Home Affairs says will reduce the number of repetitive, vexatious, or unfounded submissions.

How can his successor move forward and regain the trust of the public?

“The biggest communication skill you have is listening. So putting things in place that allows you to listen to the community. One of the biggest changes that I’ve witnessed throughout my career is the internet, social media and how that has really changed our society. 

“You have certain responsibilities and sometimes you have to make complex and difficult decisions, sometimes those decisions do impact on what certain individuals think they’re entitled to. I wouldn’t be doing my job, that I’m asked to do, unless on occasions, you make difficult decisions. 

“Sometimes these are decisions that a very small section of the community may not necessarily agree with. What we can do is try to articulate and explain why those decisions have been made. Ensure that those decisions are evidence-based and also ensure that we try and communicate and maintain the trust and confidence or all sections of our community.”

Mr Hardy is well aware that mistake do happen within the police locally, but wanted to emphasise that law enforcement personnel are people too.  

“We have always said, we are an organisation of learning. We don’t always get things right, we have a workforce that varies from people with 20/30 years experience, to people who are relatively new, who don’t have that longevity, and are still learning all the basics of doing law enforcement work. 

“The world isn’t a perfect place and when you’re dealing with people, and people in sometimes difficult situation, or violent situations, it’s stressful. For all parties, be that members of the public as well as the police. 

“It’s very easy to use social media to pass judgement and try and influence people with your own personal view, but is that being done in a way that’s fair and balanced?”

He then addressed me directly. 

“You’re a journalist, you have that experience. You’re reporting in a way that you present things in a fair and balanced way, you allow all parties to be able to speak. The abuse of social media doesn’t allow that, and can sometimes be very skewed for individual, personal reasons, which is unfortunate, but I think the majority of our community see’s through that.” 

Pictured: Rauri Hardy announcing last year's annual report.

The future, and the past

“The island going forward has some really big decisions to make about funding public services and how we do that. That will be a big challenge, because the demands that are placed upon us are forever changing.

“For example, safeguarding is a massive area of police responsibility, and that includes both young people and child safeguarding, as well as adult safeguarding, so the responsibilities with that are increasingly large. 

“The challenge of cyber, of the internet, are again ever evolving and you’ve got to keep pace with the skills and the technology and how it expands and moves. 

“There are challenges in the workforce. We live on an island where it’s a competitive labour market. Attracting people into public service is a challenge, both in respect to the Guernsey Border Agency and in the police. We’ve been recruiting consistently over a period of time because we have vacancies and we do need to fill those vacancies.”

So with the highlights illuminated, and the challenges for his successor laid out bare, what is Mr Hardy’s message to the public?

“Thank you for your support. I know predominantly, the community is really supportive of the blue light services, police and the border agency. I want them to understand that we as an organisation absolutely get that we have to be on a continuous learning journey. 

“We deal with difficult situations and a lot of our community probably don’t know the detail and the complexity and sometimes the challenges we have to deal with. Whether it’s violence, whether it’s safeguarding children, sexual offences, or sudden, unexplained deaths. 

“You’re asking members of our community to come into work and what they actually have to deal with could be any one of a 1001 different scenarios within an eight hour shift.

“We couldn’t do our job without the consent of the community and the support of the community. So thank you to those who have supported us. Thank you to my other blue light service colleagues for all their support, and I wish my successor every success, but he’s got a great team, and they will rally around, and Bailiwick Law Enforcement, i’m sure, will go from strength to strength.”