Take Control Of English And Welsh Constabularies, 5th May, PCC Elections

Will you take control of your local police by voting for the most knowledgable candidate?

The most knowledgable candidate will be the ex-copper, if you're lucky enough to have one. The politicians won't have a firm grasp on reality, they'll follow anything that sounds good. The ex-coppers will go on experience. We've got an ex-copper as PCC here, he's doing a great job.


www.edp24.co.uk...

The role of PCCs . . . powers to hire and fire chief constables and set police strategy and budgets.

Choosing the Chief Constable is a big step. Here our PCC made the right choice. Immediately the Police and Crime Panel attacked him in the media saying he should have checked it with them first. They have the power to refuse the first choice. But they have to explain their refusal to us, in my opinion, since the PCC is our choice so his choice of Chief Constable is our choice. I believe they exposed the hidden role of the panel, to subvert our chosen PCC. Watch out for the panel.


Search here for information on your local candidates.
www.choosemypcc.org.uk...


This is how much interest people showed in 2012.

www.bbc.co.uk...

. . . the turnout was the lowest in peacetime Britain.

Massive.



Perhaps we can do a little better this time.

It's our chance to take control of policing.

5th of May, it's not far away.

Don't let Hillsborough put you off, 'coincidentally'.

Yes, I will be voting in my area.

There's a lot of of cynicism about the PPCs, but that's just negative politics from people who seem to want less local democracy.

The PCCs main role, in my opinion, is to prevent police group-think and improve public connection and accountability. Look to all these paedo cover-ups in places like Rotherham and Oxford, plus the farce that was Hillsborough for proof that PCCs are needed.

a reply to: Kester

I'm not voting because I don't know much about any of the candidates and frankly I don't care much.
PCC's don't write the law or prosecute it, Parliament and the Crown do that.
Here in the Devon and Cornwall constabulary it is one of the most shockingly underfunded and resourced police areas in the UK. The biggest geographical police area in England, with funding based on the winter population, ignoring the millions of summer tourists.

Our police are well chilled and friendly, turning a blind eye to plenty of 'crimes' if nobody is actually complaining to them. They are way too busy trying to deal with major crimes to be arsed with enforcing bull# crimes, which is likely to piss the local communities off. They are well outnumbered and they know it.

I was chatting to a (rare) beat cop wearing the old school helmet recently and he was really candid about such things saying he'd done a year at the Met and hated it even though cop/citizen numbers are far higher in London.
I laughed and said I bet he's glad people are mostly nice in these parts, he replied that criminals are "more sporting" here and if we had the type of crim's here that London has they wouldn't be able to deal with it.

I reassured him that I have a few crim friends who all agree that if we saw him taking a beating we'd help him out, and that is solely because if he saw the same he would help us out. He smiled and we shook hands.

Whoever the PCC for Devon and Cornwall is it won't change much, won't increase police numbers or budgets, just policy, but while police numbers in these parts remain as sparse as they are, the comfortable and rather informal community/police relationship is unlikely to change much.

I couldn't give a toss who the PCC is, it's the front line cops who count, and the PCC can do little in my area to improve their underfunded position, whoever they may be.

a reply to: Kester

I reconsidered and voted just now.

Westcountry TV have been giving the candidates airtime this week and out of the choices the ex-copper stood out for me, he's running as independent.
He basically slated all the wasted money he's seen in D & C constabulary, needless new offices etc blah, and he reckoned that spending better could fund at least another 50 or so cops over a year.
Another plan he has is to reintroduce call-in offices to replace the closed police stations by partnering with local authorities to share office costs.

The guy seemed straight down the line, and with an experienced mind to find practical real solutions in an environment where there is no extra money for police budgets.

Nice one posting the thread Kester, made me think twice