Reflecting on her years working for Greater Manchester Police, Wigan Chief Supt Emily Higham retires after 31-years.
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00:00 So having worked in Wigan and Leigh, you know, 31 years ago as a very naive 21 year old,
00:06 you know, running around and I worked in the old Pemberton Police Station, you know, and
00:10 I worked at Leigh Nick, you know, Pemberton Police Station now I think is a subway, you
00:15 know, and, you know, I've got really fond memories of policing here, you know, and the
00:20 fact that all my family live here as well has just made it really special, you know.
00:25 But when you are out and about the communities of Wigan and Leigh, they're really good, they
00:32 talk to you and they want to see police officers and it's just really nice to know that you've
00:39 got the backing of, you know, your communities, you know, and they give us intelligence and
00:44 they'll stop and talk to us and I just think that's wonderful.
00:47 I just think that, you know, a community that engages with their police officers and is
00:51 really grateful to see the police officers is just great, you know.
00:54 And when I've been here as a Chief Super and out and about, I've had some right good crap
00:58 with people, you know, I've had some, you know, just chit-chatting, you know, just being
01:04 able to just talk to people and have a good laugh and reminisce with them and, you know,
01:08 it's just really good.
01:09 You know, I've worked with the places in Manchester where the communities are different, you know,
01:13 but I think when it's your home community, yeah, it's pretty special.
01:18 So I have absolutely loved policing and supporting all the communities of Wigan and Leigh and
01:25 all our other little small towns.
01:26 I just think it's been just wonderful, wonderful.
01:27 I'm just proud.
01:28 I'm just really proud.
01:29 Wigan girl, Wigan boss.
01:30 Yeah, I'm dead chuffed.
01:31 Excellent.
01:32 Do you have any advice for anyone thinking about starting a career in the police?
01:40 Do it.
01:42 Don't contemplate.
01:43 Just do it.
01:44 Just apply and, you know, you may not want to be a police officer.
01:48 You know, you may want to be a special.
01:49 You might want to be a cadet, you know, so we've just recruited lots of cadets here.
01:53 I've got 10 new cadets at Wigan, you know, they're aged between 13 and 17 and they're
01:58 just wonderful.
01:59 You know, they marched for me around our car park the other day and they're just brilliant.
02:03 They turned up at the Remembrance Day parade.
02:06 So anyone who's thinking about, you know, a taste of policing, there's so many different
02:11 ways.
02:12 We've got apprenticeships here, you know, so we've got some of the youngsters coming
02:14 in that are like 16 years old, 21 years old, that are working with us and it's just great
02:19 because we need people from all walks of life, you know, and not everybody wants to be a
02:23 police officer, but there are so many different avenues into policing and what I would say
02:27 is stop thinking about it and get online and fill an application for me because it is,
02:33 well, no two days are ever the same and you're never going to be bored.
02:38 You just see great things.
02:40 So yeah, I would just say, hands down, I'd do it all over again.
02:43 For sure.
02:44 I didn't have a time frame on when I would retire, you know, and I think policing is
02:49 really flexible in the fact that I didn't need to retire so I could have carried on
02:53 for quite a while.
02:54 So it wasn't that I'm going to come here and do two years, but, you know, in the time that
02:59 I've been here I've made, you know, such a difference, you know, to the officers and
03:03 staff that work here, you know, and to the communities that we serve.
03:07 You know, we've improved in so many different areas from getting to jobs quicker to the
03:11 amount of intelligence that we're now getting in, you know, to the number of warrants that
03:15 we're executing, the visibility, you know, we've done loads of work with the local authority
03:20 and, you know, the purple flag, you know, we achieved purple flag status.
03:24 You know, policing played a small part in that and it was, you know, like multi-agency
03:28 work, but I just think if I look back on the two years that I was here, yeah, I've kind
03:34 of achieved a lot of the things that really mattered to me about those kind of making
03:39 things better.
03:40 You know, the staff here, but also making things better for the public.
03:45 So yeah, there was, no, I never had a time scale, so I never had I'm going to do X number
03:51 and I'm going to go.
03:53 But I think when I was on holiday with my family and, you know, you see your kids growing
03:58 up before your eyes and you get that kind of mum guilt of dropping them off at breakfast
04:03 club and picking them up from after school club, there does come a point where you think,
04:08 yeah, it's my time to be a mum.
04:10 Because the other thing as well is policing will never be finished.
04:16 So there's never a, you know, you're never going to achieve everything that you want
04:19 to achieve.
04:20 There's always something else.
04:21 There's always a new crime trend coming around the corner.
04:25 So there's never a time to say, well, I'm going to get to this and then I'm going to
04:27 go.
04:28 But I just, you know, as I said, I do just think that a lot of things just all came together
04:32 and I thought, yeah, it's a good time to go.
04:35 So I found out earlier this year that I'd been named in the King's Birthday Honours,
04:39 which was a wonderful surprise because I didn't know.
04:42 And then on Wednesday just gone, I went to Buckingham Palace and I was presented with
04:48 my King's Police Medal by His Majesty.
04:50 What did he say?
04:51 Well, he had a conversation about my career and how sunny Manchester was, you know, and
05:00 then we had a conversation about steam trains, believe it or not.