Island Life Magazine Ltd December 2014/January 2015 | Page 20

INTERVIEW

Picture by Jan Brayley/Hampshire Constabulary
Officer on duty

be honest, because of my skin tone. One
of my biggest ‘downs’ was when I was
off duty playing local football in Cosham
and I was assaulted because I was
recognised as an off duty police officer.
I was hospitalised for three days, and
lost my faith in society and became very
bitter. The story was picked up by the Sun
newspaper who dramatised it by saying
‘Black off duty police officer assaulted’,
although I maintain it wasn’t racially
motivated - more that I was a copper.
“One of the highlights however was the
amount of well wishes I received during
my time in hospital from people I had
served in the community.”
Floyd soon realised he would like to
become a Detective; he applied and
became a Detective little more than
three years after joining the Force. He
was posted to Southsea, spending four
years there before applying to become
a Detective Sergeant, and was duly
promoted.
That led to him being asked to form
the first money laun dering unit for
Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. He
recalls: “We had some great successes,
taking out a lot of recognised drug
cartels that were using property as a
front. We only had a team of four, but
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"Of course we want to
convict criminals, but
some people want to
know that they are
safe, and our job now
is to protect those
who cannot protect
themselves."
even managed to curtail the criminal
activity of two solicitors involved in the
obtaining of properties for criminals.”
Floyd then applied to become a
Detective Inspector; he was again
promoted, this time in the role of public
protection work - protecting vulnerable
children, elderly adults and the vulnerable
in general. He became a member of
the public protection investigations
unit, leading a team of 20 dealing with
vulnerable people, including child abuse,
child death investigations, sexual abuse

within families and people trafficking
involving slavery and servitude. He said:
“That threw up a lot of big challenges,
because, for example, you cannot
approach unexpected child deaths like
you would a murder case.”
When it was decided the Hampshire and
Isle of Wight Force needed to go through
a complete structure change, including
reducing management levels and working
more effectively because of funding cuts,
it was decided to pilot the new structure
on the Island. Because of his experience
across a whole range of criminal fields,
Floyd was asked to lead the scheme
and arrived at Newport in April this year.
Although he still lives on the mainland,
he travels here every day, saying: “When I
get on the ferry to come over it still feels
like I am going on holiday, the Island has a
feeling of tranquillity."
The first operation was to pull together
all the CID staff, and boost the team
with police constables, and police staff
investigators - as Floyd describes it ‘a
mixed economy police force within one
building’. It provides expertise for volume
crime, like vehicle theft; expertise around
serious crimes such as burglary, child and
adult abuse and assaults up to homicide.
The Island’s CID boss said: "Although
cuts have been made, the department is
now more effective and efficient - leaner
and meaner. The scheme has been
successful, and as a result from January
14 Hampshire Force’s mainland operation
will be similarly structured.”
He added: “A close community and
with everyone knowing everyone else on
the Island normally makes investigation
that bit easier for us. The solved rates
of burglary are very good on the Island.
We probably get a couple of burglaries
a week, whereas in Portsmouth the
numbers are higher. The Island is clearly
a nice place to live. We had a spate of
car vandalism in Carisbrooke, and the
offender was caught. On the mainland
that would have been at the lower end of
crime with all that is going on.
“Because there is not so much of the
‘serious end’ stuff here, it gives us more
time to focus on the volume crime,
and do something about it. What is
apparently clear is that we cannot do our
job without community support, so any
time anyone wants to tell us something,
we are here to listen and provide an
appropriate response.”