Personality Profile
Matthew says talking to the public and police officers is the way to represent and influence the direction of the Force.
He’s also a fan of social media and regularly tweets his views, including those on his most recent move: to push through an increase in the county council’s precept to fund more officers on our streets – another 180 officers at a price of £2 per month for a Band D property this year.
He concedes: “It’s not my job to raise council tax and I had sleepless nights over this, but it was the right thing to do. “Doing the right thing, in this case, wasn’t the easiest thing. But the majority of people I speak to want a higher police presence and are willing to pay if it. It is my duty to represent that view and give people confidence in the institution that is there to serve them.” He is
who shares the demands of his job and being a dad with wife Nina, who he describes as his inspiration “who I’d be lost without”. Te couple are also devoted to their 18-month-old daughter, Georgina.
also keen to ensure that Police resources are spent on police issues and he uses, as an example, the estimate of four out of five call-outs are non-police maters, such as noisy neighbours, while a third relate to mental health issues, including missing people and domestic abuse. “We need to ensure that the responsible authorities are stepping up and not simply leaving it to the police to deal with,” he says. Support is crucial, according to Mathew,
Mathew said: “Policing is a 24/7 job but I do try to keep my working life and home life separate. It’s not always easy but my wife is very supportive and I do the nursery run three mornings a week so that we can both pursue our careers.” Nina works at Westminster, which is where he worked in the Whips Office for MP David Evennet, before becoming Kent’s PCC. She agreed to marry him aſter he proposed to her at midnight on New Year’s Eve on a beach in Le Touquet. Tey married the following December and in the January he began campaigning for the job as Kent’s PCC.”
So, could he have imagined holding such How it all began
Elected PCCs replaced police authorities (councillors) in 2012 in what was described as the biggest shake-up of policing for almost 50 years. However, the turnout was the lowest in peacetime Britain, with one polling station in Newport reporting a total no show from voters.
Successful candidates included eight former police officers, one of Wales’ most senior barristers, and an ex-pilot. Six were women and 35 men.
A PCC’s term of office is four years PCCs are required to swear an oath of impartiality
Kent Police drugs’ dog Eric finds a friend in Matthew
8 Mid Kent Living
PCCs cannot tell the police how to do their job - despite having some control over the direction of a force. The operational independence of the police is protected by legislation.
“I was always attracted to politics as a way of really influencing things and making a difference to people’s lives and that has remained my mission”
an important role while at school where he considered teaching as a potential career before being drawn into politics? Matthew, who was six when Margaret Tatcher leſt Downing Street, added: “I suppose I can because while growing up and during my time at Westminster I was always atracted to politics as a way of really influencing things and making a difference to people’s lives and that has remained my mission.” His dad Simon (57), mum Andrea (55) and his brother, sister and sister-in-law all serve in the Metropolitan Police and have been “tremendously supportive” throughout his life.
Te eldest of three, he jests: “You could say I come from a policing
family, but I was always able to choose my own way and this is where my trajectory took me, along with my experiences of community issues as a councillor in Bexley, and running a community centre.”
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