Breakfast with Bristol24/7: Norman Pascal

“I couldn’t stand cops as a kid,” says Norman Pascal, outgoing Chief Inspector of Avon & Somerset Constabulary. “My parents brought me up not to trust cops because of the treatment they received when they first came over.”

Retiring after 30 years, when I meet Norman at Trinity Police Station, it’s clear he’s leaving big shoes to fill. As we leave the station the staff are falling over themselves to say good morning to him. Big photos of Norman hang on the wall: as a high ranking officer in Avon & Somerset Constabulary (and the highest ranking black officer on the force), he is clearly used to a certain amount of local limelight.

Over a fry-up at the Old Market Cafe, just a few minutes walk from the station, Norman regales me with tales of a career on the front line of policing. He is unfailingly polite, greeting everyone in the cafe and proudly declaring: “I’m their best customer!” as we sit down.

However, his relationship with the police did not start well. “I was brought up on Sus [Law, a precursor to today’s Stop-and-Search] and I used to get stopped all the time. I just thought they were there to harass me,” he says.

Having gotten a job at British Aerospace, he was very much heading down a different path. It wasn’t until someone tried to steal his car that he had an experience with the police that made him think differently. “They came in and said ‘hello sir’, and I thought they were taking the piss, but they were just two decent cops…it was the first time I had a real positive interaction with a cop.”

The officers showed him how to disable the car and promised to keep an eye on it, and something in Norman changed.

In 1987 he enrolled at the police academy and began working soon after. “I picked up very quickly that there was no hiding place. I couldn’t blend in. It was quite clear and obvious I was different.” He has worked across the force, from internal affair, criminal investigations to traffic: “You name it, I’ve done it”.

Norman exudes capability. As I dispose of my mushrooms on toast, I feel strangely safe. 

Norman needs very little encouragement to keep talking, presumably the result of having been in the local spotlight for years, trying to encourage a more diverse workforce. I imagine he is used to telling his story, but his passion for his work still comes across. He loves going into schools to talk to kids about the force.

“I’d never seen a black cop when I was a kid. Hopefully I’m planting a seed in some of their minds that it is something they can do, because it wasn’t something I could.”

He talks of the importance of having police stations in more deprived areas, like Southmead, Knowle and Easton, and of attracting young people from different backgrounds into the cadets. “It’s not just about recruitment, it’s about building trust and confidence in young people and older people,” he says. “How do I get my mum to think differently? She was always petrified I was gonna get killed. And not by criminals. That’s a sad indictment.”

But thanks to work from the likes of Norman, things are getting better. Out of the 240 new police officers recruited in the past 18 months, 22 are from BME communities: just under 10 per cent. This isn’t enormous, but compared to the force’s overall 2.8 per cent BME members, it’s a big step forward, and he’s keen to note similar improvements in LGBT and disability recruitment too. 

What is remarkable about Norman is how confident he is in himself. A career of being exposed left him with no choice but to be as authentic as possible: “I had no hiding place, so I always dealt with people properly. What you see is what you get. I am a man of honour. Perhaps I’m a bit old-fashioned in that respect.”

Though, this honesty goes both ways, he admits. “I don’t suffer fools any more. I can be quite blunt. And that just oozes out at the moment, so I think now’s a good time to go.”

The way he talks about his work, it’s hard to imagine he’ll be able to keep out of community work for long, especially when there’s still, by his own admission, so much to do. Just think of the police tasering their own race relations in Easton, where Norman grew up, just a few days before we met.

As we part, he reflects: “They should repeal Stop-and-Search. I’m convinced of it. It’s misused. If a child makes a mess with a crayon too many times eventually you have to take it away. I’ll argue with anyone. At big meetings I’ll argue the case and they won’t have a word to say”. Against Norm, how could they?

Illustration by Anna Higgie

Read more: Avon and Somerset’s most senior black officer retires