After six years at Crimestoppers, Ruth McNee’s decision to volunteer as a Trustee for Police Care UK felt like a natural next step.
As former Head of Business Development & Fundraising at the anonymous crime reporting charity, she understands the pressures involved in keeping communities safe.
That understanding is one of the reasons Ruth is proud to champion the wellbeing of those who protect others, and to highlight why a healthy police service matters.
“If I’m walking along the street with my family and I hear a loud noise, a bang or screaming, I’ll be running or hiding under a chair,” she says.
“Thankfully there are people who will be running towards that noise whether they’re unarmed, whether they’re not even at work, or whether they’re in plain clothes or uniform.
“They’ll run towards the noise and I never forget I’m allowed to hide under the chair because someone else will be looking after me.
“That’s just so important in our society and we must appreciate the fact we have people who will do that for us.”
Ruth, who works as a Strategic Relationship Director for Safecall, a Law Debenture company, joined the Police Care UK Board in June 2025 and has been keen to understand how the charity supports people every day.
She is particularly keen to share her fundraising expertise so we can support more people who have been physically or psychologically harmed by their policing role.
Ruth also welcomed the opportunity to experience an element of frontline policing during a recent ride-along with the Metropolitan Police, which strengthened her commitment to our mission to reduce the impact of harm in UK policing.
“It was exciting when we were tearing through London on blue lights,” she adds.
“But what struck me most was the fact they have no idea what they’re going to encounter at every call.
“To be on a high state of alert at every moment, must be exhausting, apart from anything else.
“Then there is also the responsibility that they have. When they get to an incident, everybody looks to them to fix everything.
“The officer I was with said they’ll often see someone at the worst moment of their life or having their worst day.
“It might be just be an hour for them to deal with it, but they’re absorbing that level of angst and stress from other people on a regular basis.
“That just normal for the officers.”
Police Care UK offers a range of volunteering roles to suit different levels of commitment, from representing us at events as an Awareness Stand Volunteer to supporting former colleagues as a Peer Support Volunteer following Ill Health Retirement.
While volunteering with Police Care UK may look different from frontline policing, it is an important part of how we provide specialist clinical therapy and financial assistance to the police family.
“Society functions as well as it does in the UK because of volunteers,” says Ruth.
“I didn’t appreciate that until I had children and how many volunteering organisations keep every village, town, and city going.
“Whether it’s volunteering to help out with kids sports events or working a few hours in a charity shop, society wouldn’t function without the volunteers we have across the UK.
“And that’s something, as a nation, we should be really proud of.”
Volunteers’ Week takes place from 1 to 7 June, and we’re marking the vital role voluntary service plays in helping us deliver life-changing specialist trauma therapy to people who have been physically or psychologically harmed by their policing role.
To find out more about how you can support our work, visit > www.policecare.org.uk.
