CNC proud to play key part in inaugural Women in Armed Policing conference
The first Women in Armed Policing (WIAP) conference took place in Birmingham this week.
The first Women in Armed Policing (WIAP) conference took place in Birmingham this week and the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC) were proud to play a key part.
The WIAP19 conference was arranged to raise awareness of the need to support and inspire female police officers to become Authorised Firearms Officers (AFOs) or Firearms Commanders and saw delegates from police forces across the country attending.
The conference was opened and closed by CNC T/ACC Duncan Worsell and our Chief Constable Simon Chesterman also gave a speech about the importance of diversity and the barriers to change – stressing that we need to create the right environment and address the perception issues to encourage more women to become AFOs.
The conference featured several senior female police officers speaking about how they had combined the challenges of work and home life balance and inspiring other female officers to achieve their best, including Dee Collins, retired Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police; Lucy D’Orsi, Deputy Assistant Commissioner in the Metropolitan Police Service; and Michelle Skeer, Chief Constable of Cumbria Police.
CNC Chief Constable Simon Chesterman said: “It was a privilege to be asked to speak at the event and outline the challenges we face when recruiting women to be armed police officers.
“As a national infrastructure armed police force, we do have higher than the national average of female AFOs but there is still a way to go both nationally and at the CNC. This conference took important steps forward in recognising the challenges faced by women who want to become armed officers and how we can go about overcoming them.
“The general feedback from the event has been very positive with people finding it a hugely worthwhile event and I look forward to building on the momentum created by the conference to increasing the number of women in armed policing.”
On the day of the conference, the CNC featured several of our female officers and staff and the diverse specialisms they carry out on our social media pages. Missed it? Follow @nuclearpolice or Civil Nuclear Constabulary on Facebook to meet some of our inspirational female staff and find out more about what we do.
