‘I will do everything I can do make Northamptonshire Police much better’
NN Journal speaks to new chief constable Ivan Balhatchet about his plans to turn the Northants Police force around
By Sarah Ward
“Trust and confidence has never been lower in Northamptonshire Police,’
says Ivan Balhatchet, the county’s new chief constable appointed at the start of this week. He has taken over after two years of turmoil: his predecessor was sacked for dishonesty and stolen valour, the police and crime commissioner stood down after making misogynistic remarks and there has been a whole series of misconduct hearings of police officers, including this month when a male officer was found to have been masturbating while on duty in a police station.
The new chief constable, who is Northants born and raised and has spent most of his career in the county’s force, says reading the misconduct reports over Christmas ‘made me feel sick’.
“I’ve got people in this organisation who shouldn’t be here. I need to actually find them and get rid of them,” he says.
In the coming weeks Balhatchet, (who beat two others including former assistant chief constable Simon Blatchley to the top job), will publish his three year policing strategy.
It will include a new neighbourhood policing blueprint and a focus on domestic abuse and crime prevention.
None of this is new, the former chief constable and police and crime commissioner team often verbally committed to visible neighbourhood policing, but a difference can be if he and his senior team delivers on the promises.
He says:
“I’m the first to admit, over the last three to four years we withdrew our neighbourhood policing footprint. Our PCSO numbers have gone down. They are going to go up again. The closure of places like Corby and different police stations have made us take access away from the public. So we’ve got to do that in a different way because we cannot start building big police stations in town centres. We’re looking to do different, smaller hubs with partners.”
Last year’s police inspection (called a PEEL report) raised a number of issues with the Northants force, including poor crime investigations and domestic abuse procedures that were outside of national policy and it is there that Balhatchet appears to be targeting his focus.
While technically becoming the chief constable since this week, Balhatchet has been in charge since Nick Adderley’s suspension in October 2023, and he says that the domestic abuse team of officers has now doubled to 32.
“We had a lot of domestic abuse cases being dealt with by officers on the front line and in response. What we’ve worked through now is looking at our demand and how many we think we need. Our domestic abuse team has doubled. So they’re able to pick up and deal and investigate more high risk domestic abuse incidents. Obviously a key part is working with partners.
“What’s that going to do? Safeguard more victims, and higher detection rates.”
He also says there will be no more community resolutions for domestic abuse - a practice that was used previously and criticised by inspectors.
The language he uses contrasts to his predecessor and it appears he is a different kind of police officer. Whereas Adderley often referenced criminals as the ‘bad guys’ and liked to be shown posing with motorbikes and response vehicles, Balhatchet is noticeably quieter and more measured. He is also much more visible than Adderley, doing walkabouts in local areas and chairing local partnership meetings - a thing Adderley rarely did. He also gives two way interviews to the media, not a thing Adderley liked to do.
He says his priority is protecting the most vulnerable, particularly children.
“The protection of the vulnerable and children. That’s at my foundation and always will be.
“We have invested over two million pounds in child protection - more officers than ever had in the public protection department - so that will be my priority based on risk.”
Northamptonshire has had a number of homicides in recent years, many linked to drug supply.
He says:
“What we have to do more, working with partners, is significant outreach work. You see drug addiction on the streets and that is something the police can't solve on their own.
“People who are drug addicts are sometimes extremely chaotic. Giving them appointments to attend somewhere at a certain time does not work. We need outreach on the streets. We’ve got to reduce the amount of users as well as going out to those who are supplying.” He said as part of this more drug testing is being done in custody (and police officers themselves can also now be subject to random drug tests).
He said a focus on outreach was something he would be working on with commissioner Danielle Stone over the next six months.
“We might have had a rough couple of years, but we’ve got an exciting future. And I will do everything I can do to make Northamptonshire Police much better and give a much better service to the public.”
I would like to offer best wishes to Ivan in taking over the role.
There is clearly a lot of unfinished business from the failed regime run by the Conservatives and Adderley as illustrated by the responses to this report and stories published previously.
I would encourage all our new MPs to get behind him and show support so he can be clear he is being backed and any concerns he has can be relayed to Ministers for attention.
Does his priority for children include protecting Black kids from disproportionate use of tasers and stop and search? What is he going to do to address this long-standing inequalities and injustices?