Paul Biddle is seeking the Conservative nomination to be the Police and Crime Commissioner in Devon and Cornwall. If you are intending to stand to be Police and Crime Commissioner where you live, you can submit your own Candidate Statement, so get in touch at Editor@TopOfTheCops.com – Others are on the way, and we are looking for 400 words, a photo (of you!) that you have rights to, and preferably an imprint, which will be needed for the formal election period later this year.

Paul Biddle is seeking nomination from the Conservative party to be the Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

This is not a time for gifted amateurs or Politicos who see this as another gravy train.

I have wide experience of the Criminal Justice System from the front line to strategic policy, I also believe in more community engagement in policing with the appropriate powers.

Through my overseas work I have seen what happens when rule of law fails

Born in Brighton in 1956, Mr Biddle moved to the West Country in 1982.

He has been married to Anne for 26 years and has two daughters.

He began his career in the regular Army, serving from 1971 to 1977 in Germany, Denmark and Northern Ireland, and then with the Territorial Army Parachute Regiment until 1983

Mr Biddle joined the Prison Service in 1985, working in all types of prisons, including HMP Dartmoor and HMP Exeter, along with secondments to the Probation Service, and was the first person from the UK criminal justice system to be seconded to the Commission for Racial Equality.

He co-wrote the highly influential document “The management of race relations in prisons”.

He has also worked in the National Operations Unit as a “use of force advisor” and was awarded the MBE in 2002.
He completed his career in 2007, seconded to the National Offender Management Service.

During his prison career, Mr Biddle was also seconded to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, serving in Iraq as senior prison advisor (2004-5) and Palestine (2005) as Head of Mission, supervising a joint UK/US monitoring mission of Palestinian Terrorists, and twice to Afghanistan where, in 2006, he was cited for brave conduct for negotiating with the Taliban during the 2006 four-day riot at Pul-e-Charki prison, near Kabul.

Phil Weatley, the then Director General of the Prison Service, told him in a letter that his actions had been “a tremendous achievement that undoubtedly saved many lives”.

Since retiring, Mr Biddle has worked as a Security Sector Reform consultant in Indonesia, advising the Government on counter-terrorism, and was deployed to Afghanistan (2009) with the UN Assistance Mission supporting provincial justice and de-radicalisation programmes and then with the EU (2011).

In 2010, he was deployed by Her Majesties Government at short notice to respond to the breakdown in security and the destruction of the justice system in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti.

Since 2007 he has been a deployable member of the UK Stabilisation Unit and works closely with the UK military including attending courses and training.

Paul is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute and is currently working in Iraq on a UN justice project.

If selected would see the PCC as a full time job with no distractions.