As part of International Women's Day 2023, we're showcasing the careers and achievements of some of our female members.  This year's theme is 'Embrace Equity'. Hear from them below:

Sarah Johnson, Superintendent for Prevention and Intervention, Northamptonshire Police

Why did you join the service?
I wanted to do a job where I did something different every day, and that would really challenge me. 

Please summarise your career journey to date
Whilst I have spent my career within Northamptonshire, I has been involved in national work across a broad range of portfolios, including the NPCC Gender Portfolio, police/fire collaboration and as the staff officer on the Performance Management Coordination Committee.

Since joining in 2001, I have undertaken roles in response, neighbourhood policing and as a staff officer. In 2006, I was promoted to the rank of Inspector and took up post as a force incident manager, where I first commenced her career as a firearms commander. I continued to develop both my professional and operational career, and I am one of the longest serving and most experienced firearms commanders in the force with 16 years under my belt. 

In 2016, I was promoted to chief inspector where I moved into investigations as a detective chief inspector. I went on to gain further promotion to superintendent in 2019 and in that rank have undertaken the roles of people services lead, head of specialist ops, head of prevention and intervention, Op Talla silver commander and corporate services lead. 

I undertook the Silver POPS course in 2020 and apart from my DCI role, I have worked in specialist operations roles, regional collaborations, and I am currently the diversity lead for the Public Order and Public Safety NPCC Portfolio. I continues to work with forces and organisations across the UK to increase the visibility and profile of women in policing. 

When did you become a superintendent and why did you seek promotion?
I became a Supt in 2019. I wanted to continue to challenge myself and also expand on the specialist roles that I performed such as developing into an SFC. 

What have been the proudest moments of your career so far?
It’s really hard to choose any one moment, but I think that I have felt the greatest sense of achievement from working within ops roles and breaking down barriers or leading change. 

How do you think policing could better embrace equity?
I think that sometimes we can focus on imperfect efforts at inclusion and diversity, and use them to prevent us from trying to continuously improve. If we could be as tenacious about diversity and inclusion as we are about solving crime then we would have far better trust and engagement with the public and communities. 

Why did you join the service?
I joined policing because I had friends already in policing, and the experiences they shared were so positive, with no day being the same. They described the job satisfaction they felt in helping people, and in ensuring perpetrators of crime are brought to justice.

Please summarise your career journey to date
I worked for my local authority before joining West Midlands Police, and whilst in the force I also studied for a post graduate diploma in management and an MBA with the Open University.
 
I served with West Midlands Police for 28 years and have worked across the force in areas including local policing, response, operations, integrated offender management, partnerships, and intelligence. I have also led on Home Office-funded projects in relation to hate crime, domestic abuse, and missing children, which resulted in changes to policy in force, the local authority and the Crown Prosecution Service.

At the rank of superintendent, I worked in local policing before becoming the Senior Responsible Officer for the force’s biggest IT change programme for 2 years.  I then went on to become head of Criminal Justice Services before being elected to the position of Vice President of the Police Superintendents’ Association (PSA) in March 2022.

When did you become a superintendent and why did you seek promotion?
I was promoted to superintendent in 2017 and chief superintendent in 2020.  I sought promotion because I felt I had the right skills, experience and values to influence policing.

It was clear to me that the rank is critical both operationally and organisationally and for me, it was the direction I wanted for my own personal development but so that I could continue to contribute in a way that would be both challenging and rewarding. 

I’m really proud to have been the first female superintendent, tactical firearms commander, and public order bronze commander in West Midlands Police from a Black, Asian and minority ethnic background. I’m also the first woman of colour to hold a national officers position within the PSA.
 
The fact that this is the case in 2023 shows how much work our service still has to do when it comes to diversity in our workforce, but I am proud to be serving as a role model to others and showing other women of colour that there should be no limits to the personal goals you set yourself. I want people to see me in the roles I’ve had and believe they can do the same.
 
I’m pleased to have achieved a lot in the roles I’ve worked in, bringing down reoffending rates when working in offender management, which received national recognition and influencing changes to national hate crime policy, both in force and the wider Crime Prosecution Service.
 
I was also able to lead a Home-Office funded project in force to help us better understand domestic abuse against women in the Asian community. This was a pioneering project in force at the time and working with an outreach programme we delivered joint domestic abuse training to officers, which positively changed the perception of how officers saw victims. It highlighted some of the cultural challenges victims faced. I led on a scrutiny panel linked to stop and search. During this latter example, we combined training for officers with sessions involving members of the public, so that officers could hear first-hand experience of communities, and worked with youth groups to really hear from those who were affected by our policies.  This was flagged as best practice in force and for me
 
How do you think policing could better embrace equity?

We’re constantly changing as a service and that should be welcomed.  We have more women in policing than ever before, but we’re still a long way off where we want to be in so many areas.
 
We talk a lot about ‘lived experience’ and for a long time this has been an abstract concept that we have not integrated into our business as usual.  In the same way that we gather evidence, intelligence and information to lead our operational work, we should be passionate about understanding the lived experience of our people and build this into every part of our workforce planning.

Why did you join the service?
To support victims, apprehend offenders and ensure I could be a voice for  diverse communities, building trust and confidence in policing .

Please summarise your career journey to date
I have 27 years’ service so far, and joined policing later in life than some after becoming a mum of two.

When did you become a superintendent and why did you seek promotion?
I became a superintendent in January 2022. It was a personal goal and it helped me to show people like me within the organisation, that if I can do it they can too. They just need to believe in themselves and their abilities.

What have been the proudest moments of your career so far?
I have many proud moments, including my QPM, however more than anything I was the first female of colour in my force to become an inspector, chief inspector and superintendent.

How do you think policing could better embrace equity? 
Firstly, policing needs to build trust and confidence and get back to basics by being visible in our communities. We need to  listen, and learn from our communities, engage our young people in decisions we make by being open and transparent.  Policing also needs to acknowledge differences within their teams, and if we can do that then we will have more join us from diverse communities, and we may even see more in senior leadership and chief officer roles.