Desire to help the community behind Jerome's journey into policing

Faith and a desire to help the community of Nottingham have been the driving forces behind Jerome Edwards’ journey into policing.

Jerome has been working within the St Ann’s community for several years now – establishing a charity to support those in need across the city.

One way he has done this is by bringing community groups together to discuss how they can pool their resources to address issues that matter to the area.

Representatives from over 20 organisations – including Nottinghamshire Police – regularly gather for the ‘St Ann’s Collaborative’ to talk through solutions.

The city south neighbourhood policing team have been involved for more than two years – working with Jerome and other members to make improvements in areas like youth engagement.

It was during one of these meetings that the idea was posed to Jerome that he should apply to help improve trust and confidence in the police among the wider community.

Having been the force’s Race Action Plan Strategic Coordinator for more than seven months now, it’s fair to say he’s incredibly passionate about continuing to make a difference across Nottingham.

“As a Black person growing up in London, I experienced an element of policing that was more on the negative side,” he said.

“That long history of the perception of policing of the Black community needs to be healed, and the hope is that the Police Race Action Plan is the tool to help with this.

“Before working on the St Ann’s Collaborative, I had no other real interaction with the police, other than negatives, but the Collaborative has received some great support from the local neighbourhood policing team.

“The now Chief Inspector Karl Thomas has been great, and it was actually him who saw something within me that he thought would sit well with the police and suit the role I’m now in.

“My decision to join the police in this role was down to my trust in both Ch Insp Thomas and Inspector Steve Dalby, and the relationship there, so I took what I saw as the natural step to help the community.”

Nottinghamshire Police joined other forces across the country in signing the Police Race Action Plan in 2022, which focuses on the different ways policing can be improved for ethnic minority communities.

As part of his role, Jerome works closely with the police and community members to help build relationships with and improve the police environment for Black people and other ethnic minority groups.

Building community relationships has been key to what the 35-year-old has been doing for several years now as part of Nottingham faith-based charity ‘Matthew 25:40’, which was set up in 2018.

From raising money to help rough sleepers, to buying books for primary schools, and organising events for young people, this organisation has provided a continuous stream of support in the community.

One such event last year attracted 120 young people from St Ann’s, with the message of the day being for them to remember “they’re the pride of St Ann’s and to take pride in the area”.

Labelling faith as a key reason for his own community work, Jerome praised a force scheme to introduce church pastors into Nottingham Custody Suite to meet with young adults, predominantly from the Black community.

More than 50 people have engaged with the volunteers since the initiative – set up in partnership with the Majority Black Led Churches group – began back in the spring.

The main goal of the initiative is to provide emotional support and advice to attendees, with the pastors acting as positive role models by trying to divert them away from further criminality.

Jerome is a big fan of the scheme, which was introduced in line with Nottinghamshire Police’s support of the national Police Race Action Plan, specifically the part that coincided with involving communities.

He said: “This project is fantastic in that it allows those young adults attending custody to have a caring ear to listen to, who can hopefully help them unpick some of their mindset to help them divert away from criminality.

“We’re grateful to the churches for making it within their gift to provide this pastoral care to nurture and understand what caused these young people to make these life decisions, so that they don’t do it again.

“Having these compassionate, honest conversations could make a big difference, and we’re really pleased to have received positive feedback from the detainees who have chosen to engage with the volunteers so far.

“Faith remains a key motivation behind all the community work I’ve done, and 'important' is not a strong enough word to describe the value policing can have when engaging with young people.

“The Police Race Action Plan is a piece of work that is incredibly important to me and is a long-term investment that could make a big difference, not just for the police but for communities.

“It’s vital that it leads to more work taking place like the custody support scheme – I think there needs to be, and will be, a lot more.

“The cultural environment of policing needs reshaping and work is going on as part of this to create conversations and spaces of understanding, to help people of all races talk about difference culture.

“I sincerely believe a lot of unconscious bias could be undone through having a conversation, which can go miles towards bridging the gap between people who don’t look like them or come from their background.”

Jerome shared his story as part of Black History Month, which runs throughout October.