Acting Police Inspector Marie Reavey is busy building bridges between the police and local
churches. Chris Rolfe caught up with her.

“This would be my dream job,” Marie Reavey told her soon-to-be boss Paul Netherton. It was April 2018 and the pair were at the Houses of Parliament, attending the launch of ‘Faith and Police Together’ — an initiative to build networks between local police services and faith communities.

Marie, who became a police officer aged 19 and a Christian seven years later, was inspired by what she heard. “There’s so much good
being done already, but we could do more,” she told Paul, who was Deputy Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Police.

“I’d love to see the police connecting with churches, asking them to pray or help with local issues. And I’d love to see churches asking how they can help, about the needs in their communities and how they can support the police or pray.”

Marie says what she heard at the event chimed with a vision God had given her a few years earlier.

“It was whilst I was praying for one of our prolific offenders, an IV heroin user. He had two young children and his partner was also an IV heroin user and God showed me both of them saved, in church, being mentored. They were functioning well, social services had returned their children from care and he’d stopped committing crimes and got his first job ever. The knock-on effect was fewer victims of crime, less demand on the police, prison, NHS and probation services, and the education system was winning because his children were in a loving, nurturing environment.

“God said, ‘Now imagine that with ten families on an estate … now imagine it with an entire town.’

“I shared this with Paul, who wrote to my Chief Constable and asked if I could work with him by being part of Police and Faith Together and I started in this role in September 2018.”

Marie began work on the project by researching initiatives around the country, spending time with organisations such as Teen Challenge, and visiting churches to see how mentoring, schemes to tackle addiction and empower youth, and other initiatives were being used to transform lives.

In autumn 2019, Marie compiled her research into a free guide for churches, ‘Faith Communities Guide to Engaging With Police’, which is packed with ideas and advice on everything from volunteering and serving your community to supporting and praying for the police and getting involve with other organisations to tackle local issues. Her current challenge is convincing churches to adopt them.

“People see what’s in the Guide as a good idea, but when it comes to acting on it it’s more of a challenge. It needs a change of mindset and culture within churches, the police and statutory agencies.”

But Marie is committed to bringing this about, driven by a deep-rooted belief that her workplace is her mission field.

“I really believe my responsibility is to bring in the kingdom of God and to be salt and light by living out my Christian life as a police officer,” she says.

This article is from Christmas 2021, Issue 80 of iBelieve Magazine. Order your copy today…