I have blogged about Matt Baggott before. He was our chief constable here in Leicestershire, and did a brilliant job for ten years in our county, with its very diverse multi-ethnic, multi-faith population. He encouraged groups to meet and talk, and really helped build good community relations. So it wasn’t a surprise in 2009 when they whisked him off to Belfast
He is now Chief of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. And by all accounts doing well, as he holds down a very difficult job. Last week he made history by being the first man in that post to address the annual meeting of Sinn Fein. You can find out more from the BBC Website [here]
You only have to look at the two photos [top one, at his appointment to PSNI, bottom taken recently] to show that the four years have taken their toll- he certainly looks much older now! He would be the first to admit that he, and PSNI do not always get things right. But I believe that this man of God is truly concerned for the well being of all ‘on his patch’, especially the weak and vulnerable in the Province.
It is easy to criticise our Police Force – but we only need to look at Turkey, or Burma, or many other countries round the world, to realise we in Britain have much to be grateful for.
In your prayers today, spare one for the coppers!
In 44 years of my little life he is certainly the first police constable not to have a universal dislike following him like a personal rain cloud. The papers ran a big amount of coverage of his "aging" after the flags protest, and it does seem that the last year in particular has been difficult. Good for him though- and he engages very regularly with the churches, speaking openly and honestly about his faith.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely post : ) I'm a police officer and we do the job because we want to make things better , sometimes its hard to deal with the things we see and the negative press portrayal gets most of us down. Any prayers are gratefully received x
ReplyDeleteGoodness, I wonder if he's the same guy I met at my friend's church in 1980 - he was the son of Mike Baggott who often spoke at our church and did magic tricks. I'm not totally sure I remember his name but Matthew does ring a bell and he's about the right age!
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