 |
| Guardian photo |
Before
long, selection processes will begin in earnest and political parties will
choose their candidates for the elected positions of police and crime commissioners (PCCs). As the names of people putting
themselves forward begin to emerge, here are a few questions that any candidate
worth their salt should be able to answer:
1.This
year, a number of police authorities have taken a one-off grant from the
government in order to reduce their precept and the impact
of the cuts. There is no guarantee that this money will continue which means
that next year, the new PCCs may have to make even bigger cuts or seek higher
precepts. If you had been elected last year, what would you have done and why?
Would you have chosen to take the one-off grant or not?
Yes I would have taken the grant and yes I would take the grant in future years if offered, the grant is conditional
on holding any increase to less than 2.5%, I don’t see any issue in achieving this.
2.The
new Act gives PCCs the power to "commission policing services
from the chief constable (or other Providers)".
How do you envisage using this power and what risks do you foresee?
I think you have to consider using
third party providers of services, but the key to making this work is in the
procurement and contract management, Benchmarking and KPI’s (key performance
Indicators) must be included in any tender document and if providers didn’t achieve the KPI’s then provision must be made in any tender/contract to deal with
this.
3.How do you plan to forge a
constructive relationship with the chief constable, and what will you be doing
to avoid or handle conflicting views and priorities?
Any
relationship should be based on mutual respect, The Chief Constable has a tough
job to do as well as the PCC, any disagreements can be handled behind closed
doors and the wise Chief Constable can use the PCC to take
some of the political pressure off himself so he can operate more effectively
4.On the
basis that limited police resources need to be deployed in proportion to where
and when there is greatest risk of harm to members
of the public, as PCC what action will you take to ensure your police force is
doing this optimally?
Operationally this is the Chief
Constable’s job, but within the Policing Plan there will be priorities which
the PCC will direct the CC to concentrate on.
The key though is to create the conditions for the CC to do this most effectively,
The Budget discussions will be a key plank of achieving this
5. Given the focus on the
relationship between the police and the news media, what would you hope to
achieve in your first 100 days of office in this respect?
Expectations
will be high for immediate change, in the first 100 days there will be little noticeable
change in what is happening on the ground,
6. How much do you worry that a
large proportion of police resources spent on devising partnership protocols,
emergency plans and interagency strategies etc are broadly equivalent to all
the effort that went into Year 2000 compatibility?
A
root and branch review of all interagency Strategies, Partnerships and
Emergency plans will be one of the first things I would do, but it is already
clear to me that there are considerable savings to be made in consolidating the
LSP’s (Local Strategic Partnerships) into more manageable groupings as well as including issues like rough sleepers and as well as this, I would give LSP's a four year term with annual reviews rather
than extending on a year by year basis
7. It would seem that the fear
of crime continues to rise despite the reductions in actual crime. What
electoral promises will you make regarding this worrying trend?
The
fear of crime rises because there is a disconnect between local Communalities
and their Police, if this is re-established in a real way then fear of Crime
will subside.
8. As
PCC you will be elected by the people of your area.
However the police often work in other force areas (as happened with the riots
last year) and maintain resources to tackle national (often organised) crime.
What tensions do you foresee there and how will you resolve them?
Mutual Aid is always an important part
of Policing, the balance in the goodwill account between forces has to always
be kept in a relative equilibrium, if this starts to break down then there has
to be a robust exchange of views behind closed doors.
9. Is policing a complex
business or a complicated one?
It’s both, its complex in the many different problems and different
groups within society, a sophisticated local strategy can deal with this,
complications are the problems that arise, these can be minimised by making Policing
more receptive and by empowering Constables to show discretion and common
sense where this is required.
10. Police authorities have
been criticised for being too invisible. How will you visibly connect with all
the diverse communities of your area and bring democratic accountability to
life?
Firstly the Police Forces should reflect the makeup of the societies
that they police, In Sussex the issue is more about East European immigration and
LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgender)than BME’s so LGBT recruits and Russian,
Polish and Lithuanian speakers should be encouraged to join. But Sir Robert Peel’s
principles of Policing number nine states “The test of police efficiency is the absence of
crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with
it.” But before you get to that ideal position you
have to reduce crime and disorder.
