This article, ‘Leadership – The Imbert Way’ written by Lynda King Taylor,appeared in the September ‘07 edition of Public Servant –

The Publication for Today’s Public Service Leaders.

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feature SEPTEMBER 2007 • PUBLICSERVANT

I’m prepared to give it a go, but only if the airvice-marshal shows me how to do it first.” Thiswas how a pilot reacted to a top brass sugges-

tion that the RAF should consider suicide missions.It made me think about how another force reactedto a one-time chief – a commissioner who set abouttransforming the Metropolitan Police Force intotoday’s Metropolitan Police Service. His effortsearned him the finest feedback from his troops:“An ordinary man doing extraordinary things.”

It is the 20th anniversary of the Plus programme,which has seen the work of Sir Peter, now LordImbert, translated to police forces across the world,forming a foundation for modern day policing. Itwas a pioneering programme to deal with a pletho-ra of problems after a review highlighted that rela-tionships in the Met between police and civil sup-port staff had broken down, and public respect andconfidence in the police had plunged into outrage.Not just riots at Brixton, but also the taxpayingpublic felt the Met was divided and dragged downby disloyalty and poor practice.

The commissioner might have been tempted torefute the review criticisms and shut the door onScotland Yard’s eighth-floor mahogany corridor,but Imbert was a leader for his time. A local ser-geant recalls from his youth, hearing Imbertaddress police training school: “Leadership mustbe constant, exemplary, long lasting. If it’s heretoday and gone tomorrow you may have led yourtroops over one dangerous crevasse only to leavethem on the brink of another.”

Peter Imbert, Lord Lieutenant of London, wasnot so much a New Romney man, “more a NewRomney urchin” - one of seven children. TheHarvey Grammar School at Folkestone was anearly influence. “Masters expected so much fromyou. They were a bit like physiotherapists pushingyou a little bit further than your comfort zone,” herecalls. “But I still thought my school days wereabout games and girls.”

Is that why he joined the police service? Notquite, but he stresses: “I remember telling a friend Iwanted to be the youngest detective at Scotland

Yard”, and that’s what he became – he spent 17years in Special Branch becoming an expert inEuropean terrorist groups and hostage negotiation –and then the country’s youngest chief constable (at Thames Valley).

A school report had warned him: “If this boydoesn’t mend his ways he will end up in the handsof the police.” In this instance it wasn’t a bad out-come. He became the forefather of flexible work-ing hours, building internal customer service withcivil staff as well as external, neighbourhood policing,divisional local-based police community consultative teams, diversity and the appreciationof individual community needs and more still.

The Plus programme was true innovation andfrom it a statement of common purpose and valueswas devised on which mission policing today isbased. British Transport Police chief constable IanJohnston says Imbert’s lasting impression on MetPolice was of “a world-class human being, a leaderwho galvanised the organisation, strengtheningsupport staff, engaging and entertaining, dignifiedand down-to-earth, charismatic and championing”.

From his current perspective, 14 years on fromretirement, Lord Imbert says: “The call on the

service is immense. Workload is high, financeslimited, and the pressures are, at times, over-whelming. Looking after London and elsewheremeans helping to prevent crime, targeting andarresting local and international criminals, beingprofessional and sympathetic to victims of crime.

“Police must not forget that today’s aggrievedcustomer could be tomorrow’s juror. What happensin one small part of the service affects the whole.”If they fail in this, “the public may well look toother agencies for reassurance. That alternative isunacceptable.” He believes customer clinics areessential. “They are selling peace of mind – it’sabout knowing what the public want and givingthem that service. That’s the measurement thatcounts. Police need a free rein on this.”

Discontent over crime, bureaucracy, burdens andbudgets does not deflect Imbert from a belief in“proper visible policing”. That’s if enough stillknow how to do it given the Home Office figuresthat 67,000 of the country’s 143,000 officers nevercarry out frontline duties and a Scotland Yard sur-vey that it takes on average more than 10 hours toprocess a single arrest.

He believes the aborted police force amalgama-tions plan was an opportunity lost. The HomeSecretary “got frightened too soon. If it had startedslowly with genuine consultation there wouldn’thave been agreement, but the next Home Secretarywouldn’t have had to draw a line through it,” hesays. “If Charles Clarke had started by talking topolice chiefs over a beer and asking their views…”

He says he treated the Home Office “as humanbeings and I found they treated me as one. Therewere occasions when I didn’t trust them andbelieved they would take a different message totheir boss. One Home Secretary wanted to talk tome about a problem and the next thing I heard washe was saying he had discussed this with the MetCommissioner, almost as an endorsement, when infact he and I saw things differently.

“There are times when police have made a realhorlicks of it too. I have found that it is far betterto be upfront about it,” he adds.

But then Peter Imbert is a man of courage. “Hecertainly is,” says BTP’s Ian Johnston, “especiallywhen he’s telling his jokes.”

“

The public may well look to other agencies for reassurance. That alternative is unacceptable“ “

In his days as commissioner, Peter Imbert transformed theMetropolitan Police and changedthe face of modern policing. Now he tells Lynda King Taylorhow the Home Secretary shouldhave tackled force amalgamations

Leadership– the Imbert way

IMBERT: “better to be upfront”