The Guardians 10 questions for potential police and crime commissioners - Paul Dendle's Answers

 This is an article in the Guardian link  I have answered the questions and my answers are in blue


Directly-elected PCCs are intended to hold the police to account. As candidates emerge, here are some questions for them

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.