Intelligence checks ensure we know their every move

PC Melissa Marsh: What is your responsibility as an officer working for ViSOR?

PC Leona Valsler: Ultimately the responsibility is to protect the public at the end of the day. We have to be aware of the risks around these sort of people, we go out and visit, sex offenders regularly to ensure they're complying with certain orders that they have in place.

We've taken a ‘digital dog’ as we call them. These are dogs that are able to sniff out the smallest little things, because they can smell like the, the metal in it, so like a SIM card, a little memory stick. Reviewing that memory stick was, quite traumatic, and the things that I saw on there was something that I wouldn't want to relive.

Straight away the support was just there from Kent Police, and I couldn't fault it at all.

It is the best job, like I've ever had, and I can't imagine myself doing anything else.

You have more happy times than what you do bad times, and the teams that you, you're in, the friendships that you build, and you're actually doing something to help as well and support people within, within the community. [Music]

PC Melissa Marsh: Welcome to More Than The Badge, a Kent Police podcast. My name is PC Melissa Marsh, and I will be your host today. Today's episode is with PC Leona Valsler. Leona has worked for Kent Police for five years and is currently working for a department called ViSOR.

Welcome to the podcast Leona.

PC Leona Valsler: Thank you.

PC Melissa Marsh: What inspired you to become a police officer?

PC Leona Valsler: Well, I was originally working in retail, and I done that because I dropped out of my A-levels basically. So, I went to college I done the first year of A-levels and I was like ‘this is not for me I need to get, get into work’. And then I thought, ‘why not join the police.’ There was a job advert come up for the Victim Justice Unit, which is where you send case files off to crown courts, and you have to review them to make sure police officers have put all the right, evidence in there for example.

So, just applied, why not, got the job, fortunately otherwise I wouldn't be sitting here today. And from there I took a massive interest in the case files I was receiving for your indecent images, you're inciting a child in sexual communications, took a massive interest in that.

So, I put my name out there in the ViSOR department, which is the Violent and Sexual Offender’s Department, and I was lucky enough to get an attachment there because as a civilian you can still do attachments as well and you can really experience what other departments are like. Went there, loved it, and a coordinator role actually come up, which I applied for, and that was basically overseeing all the sex offenders that were in the North division and you just update addresses, update phone numbers and just ensure that everything's updated on our police system and liaise with other agencies. So, from that I was seeing other officers who are actually on the ground, actually going out visiting people and I thought ‘that is something I want to do.’ Grading risks, being able to arrest them, taking them into custody, remanding people, which is where they go to court like basically the next day for like serious offences, and hopefully then to prison, and I was just seeing all of that and I thought ‘wow! I need this job’ like so then I thought ‘I just want to do everything’ and actually they had civilian roles within the ViSOR department as an investigator so, I applied for one of them, was successful obviously with the background as the coordinator role. Done that, and then I was thinking ‘right I need to arrest now’ like I'm just standing there while everyone else is getting involved, and I'm just there like doing the files, doing the paperwork so I'm like ‘I need to apply to become a police officer’ and here I am, and I'm loving every minute!

PC Melissa Marsh: Absolutely, absolutely love it, you get a bit of the sunshine and a bit of the paperwork it's, it's a good balance.

PC Leona Valsler: Absolutely.

PC Melissa Marsh: So, you've mentioned your department ViSOR. What is it that you guys do?

PC Leona Valsler: So, we manage registered sex offenders within the community, there are also violent offenders that are managed, but that's by a separate part of our department, so my main role is sex offenders. We have, various teams over North, East and West division, that is made up of about 12 officers. Within that we have our own, workload to manage, and we go out and visit, sex offenders regularly to ensure they're complying with certain orders that they have in place.

So, they have different orders such as the Sexual Harm Prevention Order, Sexual Risk Order, and they also have their notification requirements, and involved in that is letting us know about internet enabled devices, about bank cards, anything really, I mean, everything they do we need to know about to ensure that they're being managed within the community.

PC Melissa Marsh: So now that you've got the best of both worlds doing paperwork and then still being out in the sunshine or possible moonlight, how did you get into the role, what route did you take?

PC Leona Valsler: So, I took, it's called the PCDA route (Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship), which is essentially you get a degree from this, so I was, was like ‘great, I need this’ and do you know what, I was a bit apprehensive about doing it, I was thinking ‘I've been out of education now for about ten years, how am I going to write an essay, how am I going to do this?’, you have to do like posters, presentations I was like ‘have I made the right decision?’, but I can just assure if you want to take that route, it's just, you're so supported, you feel like you're actually achieving something as well, and yes it is a lot of hard work, but you're supported by the job, you get days where you're able to actually do your work, they're called ‘protected learning days’. You're also given days where you watch, certain videos and you do certain like little tests and that to really get you into, back into the college mode once you've been out on section. So, I'm in my second year now of doing the degree, and yeah, it's great and I'd recommend anyone to take that route really, ‘cause the support is excellent.

PC Melissa Marsh: What is your responsibility as an officer working for ViSOR?

PC Leona Valsler: Ultimately the responsibility is to protect the public at the end of the day, and we're actively in sex offenders’ lives. Ultimately, we're always monitoring what they're doing, as I mentioned you know, certain intelligence that comes through to us, briefings that are sent out to officers. Basically we know their every move and we are monitoring them, as I said for the majority, depending on their sentencing, for the rest of their lives, they've always got us there, us going out visiting them, us checking their devices, checking absolutely everything to ensure that the community is safe.

PC Melissa Marsh: So, what you do is, you've caught them and then, further on, you're preventing them from making any further offences once you've caught them, so they're constantly being supervised within the community.

PC Leona Valsler: Yes, that's correct, constant supervision and we can do many, many intelligence checks to ensure that we know their every move really, and we can go out and give disclosures to people, which is if they're concerned about, someone that's in their family or somebody like that, we actually can go out and give disclosures to them if they do have children that they are concerned about.

PC Melissa Marsh: How do you manage your work and home life balance within this job?

PC Leona Valsler: Okay, I mean, yeah work home life balance you get, as I said to you like I get my time, to have to do my uni work, I get the time to actually do my job, and then I get my days off. I work 7 till 3, Monday to Friday, the occasional weekend, but of course if we do end up arresting somebody that's when you're looking at doing 20 plus hour shifts in order to get someone in front of the courts. We call it like a remand basically, and that's when people have breached certain conditions that are in place in their order. Of course, you're going to get challenges where you do think about work, but again you, you just, you learn to not basically and to really separate that work home life. It is difficult, but you do learn you do learn, learn to do that.

PC Melissa Marsh: Yeah, I think the other thing is it's like with a Monday to a Friday job you've got two days off, I think even though you're dealing with a hard shift and a long shift, there's nothing more rewarding than realising you've got four days off after doing a six-day shift.

PC Leona Valsler: Umm, and, and Kent Police give you a lot of annual leave as well, I mean, and you can work up if you do a bit of overtime, you can take that as time if you want to and they're reasonably, flexible when you can take your annual leave and that.

PC Melissa Marsh: Can you share a moment with us, just a moment in your career where you've had a case that you worked on that's really stayed with you? This could be a proud moment or a moment that you found challenging.

PC Leona Valsler: So, I visited one of my low nominals, upon entering their address I was able to see a phone charger over in the corner. I kind of questioned this like ‘why have you got this?’ ‘cause he was subject to an order where he wasn't allowed internet enabled devices, without us installing certain monitoring software on it and letting us know about it.

Obviously, discovered this device in, in his property and a lot of images were found on that and he was convicted and he's still currently in prison, so it was a great, great result and probably one of the highlights of my career.

PC Melissa Marsh: Well, just out of interest, like would you have a challenging moment as well?

PC Leona Valsler: Yeah so my challenging moment, I would say was, another one offender, another one of our offenders, managed as high risk within the community, gone out to do a visit with them, and we've had certain intelligence to say that there was something not quite right, maybe another device there, once again he was subject to orders where he had to tell us about devices. We've taken a ‘digital dog’ as we call them, so these are dogs that are able to sniff out the smallest little things ‘cause they can smell like the metal in it, so like a SIM card, a little memory stick, like anything it's absolutely amazing to watch this dog going around somebody's address. So, we've all gone out, had the dog searching and this dog got, besotted on this like recliner chair, and we was all thinking ‘oh maybe it can smell the mechanisms of the chair or whatever’ so we've turned the chair up and next thing there's a memory card in it, so obviously you're kind of expecting stuff to be on there due to it being hidden and this is where the challenging point comes in ‘cause even though it was a highlight bringing this offender like into custody etc. and getting the justice there, reviewing that memory stick was, quite traumatic, and the things that I saw on there was something that I wouldn't want to, to relive.

PC Melissa Marsh: Yeah.

PC Leona Valsler: However, you know you learn how to manage that. Kent Police have an amazing welfare, in place in order to support you through that and the importance of working as a team as well and you're able to debrief with one another of the trauma that you've been through

PC Melissa Marsh: Yeah

PC Leona Valsler: and I feel like within the police you're going to expect to go through that trauma in many different things it might be from indecent images or seeing a dead body for example, but again you have, there's amazing welfare in place and your team's just great.

PC Melissa Marsh: You've just spoken about the digital detection dogs, it's quite interesting that there's only two currently in Kent Police.

PC Leona Valsler: Yeah.

PC Melissa Marsh: Is that correct?

PC Leona Valsler: Yes two, two currently, one of them is a little Cocker Spaniel, and then the other one is a, a Labrador, but normally we have the Cocker Spaniel that comes out and supports us.

PC Melissa Marsh: Absolutely love it, I just can't resist I have to always touch the fluff. [Laughing].

PC Leona Valsler: They're very cute.

PC Melissa Marsh: So, what support and camaraderie, what's that like amongst your colleagues at the moment?

PC Leona Valsler: So even from when I was on Response, it's just, the teamwork that you have is just next to none, like, you go to a difficult job you've always got someone there with you to like debrief with, who supports you and even in this current, like my current role in ViSOR we go out in pairs all the time, we're, you've always got someone with you in dealing with like even when you image grade* everything, you've always got someone with you to like debrief with, and as I was saying even on Response, there's just no other bonds like it, like I haven't been on Response for a little while now and I still have, you know chats with my colleagues who I worked with and we're still meeting up and everything, which is, it's just bonds that you can't explain really in the police.

PC Melissa Marsh: Glad to hear, it's quite similar in your department, ‘cause I mean, I'm a few months into working with the Response side of the team, and my goodness I'd go to a call where I'm feeling really weary and all of a sudden you've got three or four other officers that turn up, or you go to a sudden death scene and you come back into the office and everyone's just checking with you, ‘are you okay?’. It's so nice to see that that's still there in another department as well, it's not just the main front line.

PC Leona Valsler: Yeah absolutely, as I said you just can't explain it, as you know it's just amazing.

PC Melissa Marsh: So, how do you manage the emotional impact of the role?

PC Leona Valsler: So, for me in my current role, putting someone back into prison gives you that bit of comfort to think, ‘I've got a bad person that's doing horrendous crimes, off the street, they're back in’ and it's worth going through, what you have to do basically, your evidence gathering etc and it makes it all worth it knowing, that they're back in prison. With regards to the job I spoke about before, when the, when we reviewed the horrendous images, straight away the support was just there from Kent Police and I couldn't fault it at all, we had, Occupational Health give me a ring, they spoke through what I had seen, whether I should be referred for counselling, and then from there you then get referred for in-person counselling if they feel that that you need that, but they were there within an hour of me reviewing those images. My sergeant was incredibly supportive as well, she actually helped me with the Occupational Health phone call because, as you can imagine things that you see in the police are quite horrendous and can be quite horrific,

PC Melissa Marsh: Of course

PC Leona Valsler: and then also on Response you see, absolutely horrendous things from dead bodies, fatal road traffic collisions, giving CPR to someone, like you just don't realise how that can have an impact on you and it's important to realise if you're going for this job you need to, you need to be able to mentally deal with that, but in the Response team etc. you have something called a TRIM practitioner which is a, basically someone that's trained to manage the harm that you've been through, it's a management plan, and they assess you once you come back off a job that's been quite horrendous. You sit down with them and other people that have also been in that that job, and you talk through what's happened, so you have a big debrief about it basically, and then from there they can refer you to Occupational Health if they feel that you need to go through that, and then again on to independent counselling if Occupational Health feel, feel that you need that, but also it's important to realise that the team around you are going through the same thing as you and they are ultimately there to support you.

PC Melissa Marsh: Yeah so, you've mentioned TRIM, TRIM is our Trauma Risk Incident Management Team.

PC Leona Valsler: Yes.

PC Melissa Marsh: Um, and they would do the assessment if you go to something rather traumatic.

PC Leona Valsler: Yes.

PC Melissa Marsh: I think the good thing is also that you're speaking to your colleagues, but sometimes things can change, you think that you're okay half an hour after a job and you'll just have a conversation with them, but sometimes, maybe further along the line, two weeks later or a month later you might still be feeling quite low and you don't realise it's from a job that you've been to, so we've got those referral teams such as TRIM and the Occupational Health team that deal with those incidents.

PC Leona Valsler: Yes, absolutely and we've actually had that in our department when you can review images, but you don't realise the effect that has on you until something triggers you, for example if you see a child in the street that can be a trigger straight away and they're always open, Occupational Health give them a ring say ‘look I've had this job, I feel like it's really affected me, can I please have some help?’ and they help you out 100%.

PC Melissa Marsh: So, I think what we can say for our listeners is, even though you go through these incidents as a police officer, don't be afraid to talk, everyone's here to listen and support

PC Leona Valsler: Absolutely.

PC Melissa Marsh: and there's a service there for you should you need it.

PC Leona Valsler: Absolutely, and also your training as well that you have at the college

PC Melissa Marsh: yeah

PC Leona Valsler: you know you're taught to recognise your feelings and your mental health, about how you feel about certain things and you're taught to acknowledge the way you're feeling if you're not feeling right, you know you need to seek that help

PC Melissa Marsh: Yeah

PC Leona Valsler: and the other training for example, you know, coming across serious incidents it just kicks in, you just, you don't realise how much you learn at the college and as soon as you're there in that situation that's it.

PC Melissa Marsh: Yeah absolutely, I know, I know exactly what you mean, ‘cause I mean my first ever cardiac arrest I was like ‘oh, am I going to be capable of doing this?’, I've sat there with my gloves on, waiting for my turn to do chest compressions and I was like ‘I think, I think I've got it under control’ and then the minute you jump in it's there.

So, it's very valuable training that we get from the service as well.

PC Leona Valsler: Definitely.

PC Melissa Marsh: So, what are the most common misconceptions that you face?

PC Leona Valsler: The most common misconceptions is that, the police are just there to arrest people, which is far from the case, like the amount of victims we deal with we're supporting them through horrendous crimes that have happened to them, and ultimately we are here to support people and we can put you in that right direction of how to seek support, we're not just here to make your life difficult. [laughing]

PC Melissa Marsh: Yeah, yeah no I fully agree with you, I've been to a call recently where, it was just someone that needed some extra support, and I don't think they realised that we had those tools to hand, to actually provide that assistance, and it's such a relief, when they see that we are able to assist beyond just making an arrest for an offender, so that was quite refreshing.

PC Leona Valsler: Yeah.

PC Melissa Marsh: What's been the scariest moment or a moment that you've realised the risks that you have in the job and the risk of what you do?

PC Leona Valsler: Oh there's, there's always risks within the job isn't there? I mean from Response, if you was worried if you couldn't find a suspect, if you've turned up to a domestic and the suspect had fled the scene, and even in my role at the moment, you know, you, you often think what happens if one of my nominals that I've graded as low, goes on to commit an offence, a further offence, it's always that panic, but you need to have trust in yourself that you've reviewed that situation adequately and you're able to really write up the risk assessments and to say ‘well look there was nothing there to suggest that they would go on to reoffend’ and unfortunately these things do happen, but we put everything in place in order to prevent this.

PC Melissa Marsh: What direction do you have for your career now, where would you like to take yourself further forward in the future?

PC Leona Valsler: So, I would love to progress. At the moment I want to get my degree out the way and proper settled down within ViSOR again in that department, but my ultimate goal is to progress through the ranks, to become an inspector and above really, I mean that's what I'd love to do.

PC Melissa Marsh: Would that be to stay in ViSOR, or would you consider a different department?

PC Leona Valsler: Oh no, 100% I would consider a different department, I feel like within policing you sometimes want that change to really like experience different departments, and I feel if you do want to progress up through the ranks as well you need to, you need to know like the ground job first before you start going up and trying to lead a department that you've never worked a day in your life in [laughing].

PC Melissa Marsh: Absolutely. [Laughing].

PC Leona Valsler: Yeah, so that that's what I've, I'd like to do.

PC Melissa Marsh: Perfect, so which would be the next department for you?

PC Leona Valsler: Good question. There are so many, there are so many jobs in Kent Police that you, that you can do and the, the opportunity is just, is amazing, and as I've said about attachments and stuff that you can do, you can stay there for a month if, if you want to in in a department to really see what it's like. I mean for me, I wouldn't mind, I suppose the Child Protection team, again there’s just so much.

PC Melissa Marsh: Yeah, absolutely I think, there's a few that have popped up on the Open Days, when you attend the Kent Police Open Days, and you never realise how many different departments there actually are so you kind of just have to dip your toe into the water…

PC Leona Valsler: Absolutely.

PC Melissa Marsh: and find out which departments for you.

PC Leona Valsler: Yes.

PC Melissa Marsh: So, we're now going into our off the cuff segment, which is something a little bit different. First thing I'm going to ask you is what is your go-to shift snack?

PC Leona Valsler: Has to be chicken nuggets, especially on the night shift as well, like you crave them like something else, at like 3 o'clock in the morning [laughing].

PC Melissa Marsh: Yeah, my favourite, I agree with you.

So, if you could be a superhero, the question you always used to have as a kid, what would your superpower be?

PC Leona Valsler: I would love to remove all the bad offences in the world, I mean you know your people that, your shoplifters, stuff like that, and your, your murderers, your things just to have none of that, I know I'd be out of a job, but I mean what a world it would be right like not to have none of these crimes going on, everyone lives happily but again that's an ideal world that's never going to happen is it?

PC Melissa Marsh: No of course, but luckily we've got people, like us in the force, there to prevent it and there to protect our vulnerable people.

PC Leona Valsler: Absolutely.

PC Melissa Marsh: If you could choose any celebrity to join you on a shift, who would it be?

PC Leona Valsler: David Attenborough all day long, his knowledge it just fascinates me, like what he knows, wildlife, anything and, I can't imagine a night shift dragging if you had him in the car with you. You know just talking about everything really, what's going on in the world, he's just such a public figure that I think everyone loves. So, I would love to have David Attenborough with me, on a shift.

PC Melissa Marsh: Yes, definitely, calm very interesting person.

PC Leona Valsler: Probably really reassuring as well, like if you're turning up to a job, you're a bit unsure about, a bit worried about, I can imagine him like, just reassuring you, like it's going to be okay.

PC Melissa Marsh: Yeah, a little bit of a walking encyclopaedia.

PC Leona Valsler: Yes absolutely.

PC Melissa Marsh: What would be the one thing you wish the public knew about your role as a police officer?

PC Leona Valsler: How hard we work, and the challenges we face day-to-day is just ridiculous and before I joined the police you had no idea. I had absolutely no idea about the sort of things that we would be seeing, the sort of things we'd be dealing with, and we work hard, you know like gathering statements, gathering all the evidence and all the paperwork that comes with that is just ridiculous and obviously we are always offering that best service and we try and do our, do our best with whatever we do but it's, uh, yeah can get challenging at times.

PC Melissa Marsh: Yeah, I think also just letting people know that you know at the end of the day even under this uniform, where you've got the authority and the pride and respect for your community and willing to be giving back, it's that remembering that you're still human, you're still learning, and it's an ever-changing role where you still be learning.

PC Leona Valsler: And we all make mistakes as well, isn't it, I mean, we always try and rectify whatever mistakes we've made, but as you said we are human, we do have a heart, like we we do understand certain things, [laughing] even though we're not probably living in that situation that you're going through we do understand, and we see it day-to-day in our role.

PC Melissa Marsh: Yeah absolutely. So, what advice would you give to someone thinking about joining the career as a police officer?

PC Leona Valsler: Do it. It is the best job like I've ever had and I can't imagine myself doing anything else, I mean, you have your challenges day-to-day but you, the, you have more happy times than what you do bad times, and the teams that you, you're in, the friendships that you build, and you're actually doing something to help as well and support people within, within the community, it's, it's just amazing, just join up, do it.

PC Melissa Marsh: I just wanted to say, thank you very much for taking the time, to be with us today and it's been a pleasure having you.

PC Leona Valsler: Thank you.

PC Melissa Marsh: Thank you for listening. If you've enjoyed this episode follow us on Instagram, X, Facebook and LinkedIn where we'll be posting previews of our upcoming episodes.

Don't forget that you can watch this episode by subscribing to our YouTube channel and find out more about the variety of career opportunities by searching Kent Police careers.

See you soon.

* image grade - indecent images are categorised from A to C depending on the severity of the image or video that has been seized. Category A is the most severe.