Hundreds attend community sports day in Gloucester

A Community Sports Day, which aimed to bring communities together alongside police, took place yesterday afternoon (Thursday).

The annual event was organised by the Community Legitimacy Panel (CLP) and Gloucestershire Constabulary's Better Together team to celebrate the wide diversity in our communities, and the event aims to build trust between police and local people. 

This year more than 900 people attended Ribston Hall High School between 2pm and 8pm, where alongside several sports tournaments and family fun day events, two barristers from London gave an input on police powers and use of force. 

It generated a lively and healthy question and answer session. This also enabled Chief Constable Rod Hansen to talk with the community about policing in the county.

Members of the public were able to interact with members of the Constabulary who were on hand to talk to them and explain more about their roles including firearms officers, student officers, neighbourhood officers, dog handlers, Professional Standards and the Mounted Unit.

The event was also supported by some partner agencies such as the Music Works and Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service.

Chief Constable Rod Hansen said: "The event was a great success and thank you to all those who gave up their time and spent it with us. Our role is to keep people safe from harm and in order to do that, we need strong working relationships between the police and the communities in which we serve day in, day out.

"Events like this enable us to have open and robust conversations, while furthering our commitment to being an inclusive service, policing with legitimacy and maintaining high levels of public confidence.

"We have coercive powers to use wisely in order to keep people safe from harm. We must act professionally at all times, and any use of force by the police has to be within the confines of the law – officers are permitted to use force, but it always needs to be reasonable, proportionate and justifiable.

"If concerns are raised about our use of force, we will act swiftly to respond to those concerns and, if necessary investigate them. Where it is shown to be justifiable we will explain that to the public. If there is learning we will look to embed that into our policy, practice and training and if there is misuse of our powers the matter will be thoroughly investigated. If needs be we will take firm action to deal with it appropriately. 

"This event follows on from a recent and well-attended event at Widden School to celebrate Eid where police and the community came together to build even stronger, positive relationships.

"I know that the vast majority of officers and staff come to work to do a very difficult job, do it well and often put themselves in harm’s way in order to protect the community. We cannot do this without the help of the public and we look forward to continuing to work alongside them, with them and for them."

At the event children took part in races and scaled the climbing wall, before families tucked into food and danced to a disco featuring music from around the world.

Elsewhere there were friendly matches of football and netball between teams made up from the local community and the emergency services.

Staff from Gloucester charity The Music Works were also on hand to encourage young people to get creative.

Police horses Berkeley and Fairford turned up too, proving a hit with both young and old alike, while children got to try out sitting behind the wheel of police cars and fire engines.