Movers and shakers Hold on to your hats From civil enforcement officer and hate-crime ambassador to running for BPA vice-president, Louise Parfitt finds out more about Jade Nevilles journey into the parking black hole N ational operator representative on the BPA Council of Representatives; member of the Professional Development and Standards Board, the Public Affairs and Communications Board, and the Technology Innovations and Research Board, plus running for BPA vice-president Im glad Im recording my chat with Jade Neville, because my typing wouldnt keep up. I wonder where she finds the hours in the day to fit it all in. She laughs; although it does take up a lot of her time, she tells me that it is manageable because she has great support from her employer, OCS. I forgot to mention in the long list above that Neville works for OCS at centre:mk in Milton Keynes. She has been there since September 2018, overseeing the new 1,400-space multi-storey car park, has recently been promoted to head of parking services, and clearly loves what she does. Its a really exciting project to work on, she says. It has state-of-the-art technology and gadgetry that you dont often find in retail car parks. Its getting busier each week, and the feedback has been really positive. Making changes I get the impression Neville has planned her career carefully, with a clear vision of what she wants to achieve but she admits this is not the case. It was my stop-gap job after college, she says. I wanted to go into the police or RAF, so I decided to work as a civil enforcement officer for six months to help me come out of my shell. Nevilles parking journey began in Southend in 2007, working for Apcoa. She really enjoyed working with the public, but it wasnt without its challenges. Helping people was so rewarding, and outweighed the negative parts by far. But I was driven at, spat at, threatened with a knife and, yes, its scary, she says. The more I saw it happening not only to me, but to other officers too it spurred me on to do something to change it. Things came to a head when a colleague was racially abused, and Neville decided enough was enough. I spoke to an officer at Essex police about the incident, and he told me about a pilot scheme to train volunteers to take reports of hate crimes from victims. I worked alongside the police to adapt it for our parking team. Neville had had first-hand experience of the court process after she was hit around the head and had a bucket of water thrown over her. It was a daunting process, however; the defence was aggressive, calling her a vulture. Some people could easily get frazzled by that, Neville says. So I used my experience to help create a training and support programme for my colleagues, including taking them to the court house, showing them how the process worked, and explaining how to give evidence so they were confident doing it. cameras were routinely used. The team was still struggling to provide sufficient evidence to bring cases to court, however. Neville managed to get additional training from the police for senior colleagues on collecting evidence at the scene of an attack, including using spittle kits. They then acted as a rapid response unit to collect evidence and put it in sealed bags to be used in court. After that, every person who went to court had a successful prosecution. It was so successful that attacks on frontline staff went from an average of two per week to zero within months. Neville also spoke about the scheme on local and national radio. It showed the other side; this is someone doing their job and for them to get hit or receive some sort of abuse just isnt acceptable, says Neville, who had now got the parking bug. She had been promoted to Hate-crime ambassador The hate-crime ambassador role included being trained to write statements, to ensure the correct information was captured in the days before body-worn 14 britishparking.co.uk PN Oct19 pp14-15 Movers and Shakers.indd 22 23/09/2019 13:48