Reporting the PCC elections – confusing messages

Posted on 18/11/2012 by samchapman

Giselle Green ran Siobhan Benita’s media campaign in the recent London Mayoral election. She is an ex-BBC News producer.

 

The media's obsession with the low turnout for the PCC elections was a self-fulfilling prophecy. Right from the start the overwhelming message appeared to be: these elections are unnecessary, uncalled for and downright dull so we won't bother reporting them except to say they are unnecessary, uncalled for and downright dull. I'm certainly not defending David Cameron’s apparent belief that it is the media's job to step in when the government has so monumentally failed to publicise them (perversely preferring to spend £25 million delaying the elections from May until November rather than on funding mail shots). But if the media sets such a downbeat tone, it's not surprising that it rubs off on voters.

 

I must declare a personal interest here. Following my role as Siobhan Benita's Head of Media in her London mayoral campaign, I became loosely involved in the campaign of the ultimately successful independent candidate in Kent, Ann Barnes. I wrote to many national journalists and broadcasters, telling them about her excellent prospects, hoping this might prompt them to use her as part of their national coverage and spark debate on, for example, which independent candidates might have a chance of getting elected or on why so few women were standing. Nothing doing, other than a couple of lines in the Guardian's Media Monkey.

 

I offer this personal tale purely as one small example of press disinterest, which you may well think is justified. It would be helpful to hear from other candidates about the level of coverage they received, both locally and nationally to get a more accurate picture. Interestingly, Ann’s campaign team felt she did receive decent (and fair) news coverage from the local media. And thanks to a more reasonable approach by broadcasters than in the London mayoral election, they say Ann’s appearance in all the regional TV debates was an absolutely vital factor in her success.

 

It’s quite possible of course that the perception of poor media coverage is another example of the London-centric bias of our media and Downing Street: if it’s not in the London-based national press, it’s not happening. Or maybe we shouldn’t confuse reporting an election with convincing the public to vote. Hopefully the Electoral Reform Society’s enquiry into “the comedy of errors” of these PCC elections will also look at the media’s role.

 

What is clear though is that the national media totally failed to predict the big story of the PCC elections: TWELVE independent candidates being elected, compared to Labour’s 13 and the Tories’ 16. Paradoxically, the success of independents is related to both the low turnout and the lack of information. Yes, voter apathy and ignorance (whether due to government incompetence, patchy media coverage or November gloom) are valid explanations for the embarrassingly low turnout. But I think another major reason is that for a public which is so used to voting tribally, this election posed a real problem. Most people instinctively felt it was wrong to have a party political police commissioner. So where could they turn? With no information and little interest, they just didn't bother to vote at all. Or spoiled their ballot paper, scrawling as one Sheffield voter did: “no independent therefore none of the above”. The minority who did vote had done their homework and actively sought out information, leading huge numbers to plump for serious, credible independents, the majority of whom have relevant policing experience as ex-police officers or ex-police authority chairs. People who had been won over by independent candidates were also more committed and motivated to get out and vote for them, compared with lethargic party political voters.

 

So what was billed as a bad day for democracy, with turnout at an all time low, may ironically have turned out to be a great day for democracy, with the most appropriate people being elected and voters learning how to put a cross next to the word “independent”.

 

Posted in Independents, Media coverage, Perspectives | 7 Comments

Your New Best Friend

Posted on 17/11/2012 by samchapman

Congratulations, Commissioner – well done!

The blur of praise and well-wishes may be getting a bit much now, or you still may be in the psychological state of euphoria. Good job you have a few days to get over it then as, formally, you have to wait till next Thursday before you take up the reins. We both know that’s not going to happen.

Everyone is praising your abilities as a winner, and there is, after all, plenty of evidence of that. However, there are many out there who look at you like cartoon Tom looks at cartoon Jerry, as their next meal.

I don’t merely mean they want to have you for breakfast, though that is true. I mean that you are now a very important person. You may not be the most important person in the world but, for some people, you are the most important person in their world, and you are where their next and every meal comes from, whether they be cops, former police authority staff, PCSOs, police civilians, or a range of partners and voluntary groups who are after your coin.

Many will now be seeking to be your new best friend, not least of which will be the Chief Constable or the Chief Executive of the Police Authority. The most proficient of these will get you to believe it, and slowly augment your priorities with their own.

You need help. So get your own, be that a political Deputy or, alternatively, someone you can trust! I was told earlier in the campaign that Labour candidates without police experience were being urged to find a Deputy with some. I reported it, not as a criticism, but as sound advice. And recently I heard an anonymous senior Conservative figure give this advice for new PCCs on what they needed to sort out before anything else – “get a personal adviser, a clever and able person to help you – you can’t be in the room alone.”

In London, the Principle Advisor role falls to Blair Gibbs, and the Mayor and Deputy Mayor for Policing have appointed other part-time Advisors so they have loyal specialist advice when they need it. Others may chose a consultancy arrangement. It’s not something you can do on the cheap, but it will be worth every penny.

The last thing you can afford to do is to be enveloped by the existing system, and ‘go native’. Because, if you are to be anything at all, you cannot be the system. You are the change.

 

Posted in Perspectives | 6 Comments

Results 2012

Posted on 16/11/2012 by samchapman

Winning Candidates

With 41 of 41 results…

Conservatives – 16

Labour – 13

Independent – 12

The predictions referred to below are the baselines I suggested from Police Foundation research and national polling on party preferences – in the absence of previous election data. Where results are different from the baselines the winning candidate is believed to have done particularly well.

Avon and Somerset – Sue Mountstevens – Independent – (predicted too close to call, with Labour ahead) – Website

Bedfordshire – Olly Martins – Labour – (predicted – Too Close To Call with Labour ahead) – Website

Cambridgeshire – Sir Graham Bright – Conservative (as predicted) – Website

Cheshire – John Dwyer – Conservative – (predicted Labour) – Website

Cleveland – Barry Coppinger – Labour (as predicted) – Website – TopOfTheCops Candidate Statement

Cumbria – Richard Rhodes – Conservative (predicted Labour, so a valuable northern upset here for the Conservatives) – Website

Derbyshire – Alan Charles – Labour (as predicted) – Website

Devon and Cornwall – Commodore Tony Hogg – Conservative (as predicted) – Website

Dorset – Martyn Underhill – Independent (predicted Conservative but with Martyn as one of four Independents nationally worth watching) – Website – TopOfTheCops Candidate Statement

Durham – Ron Hogg – Labour (as predicted)

Dyfed Powys – Christopher Salmon – Conservative (predicted safe Labour, so a real upset) – Website

Essex – Nick Alston – Conservative (as predicted) – Website

Gloucestershire – Martin Surl – Independent (predicted Too Close To Call with Labour ahead) – Website

Greater Manchester – Tony Lloyd– Labour (as predicted) – Website

Gwent – Ian Johnston – Independent (predicted safe Labour, so another real upset for Labour in Wales) – Website – TopOfTheCops Candidate Statement

Hampshire – Simon Hayes – Independent (predicted Conservative, but in August I suggested this seat could effectively host an unofficial Primary election between Michael Mates and former Conservative Simon Hayes) – Website

Hertfordshire – David Lloyd – Conservative (as predicted) – Website

Humberside – Matthew Grove – Conservative (predicted Labour, but as John Prescott loses we can all breathe a sigh of relief and thank the God who obviously is there and cares for us) – Website

Kent – Ann Barnes – Independent (predicted Conservative, but Ann Barnes was another of my 4 Independents to watch nationally) – Website

Lancashire – Clive Grunshaw – Labour (as predicted) – Website

Leicestershire – Sir Clive Loader – Conservative (predicted Labour) – Website

Lincolnshire – Alan Hardwick – Independent (predicted too close to call with Conservatives ahead) – Website

Merseyside – Jane Kennedy – Labour (as predicted) – Website

Norfolk – Stephen Bett – Independent (predicted too close to call with Labour ahead because of impact of Bett on Tory votes. Bett was Tory Police Authority Chairman and resigned pre-election after they failed to select him) – Website

Northamptonshire – Adam Simmonds – Conservative (as predicted) – Website

Northumbria – Vera Baird – Labour (as predicted) – Website

North Wales – Winston Roddick – Independent (predicted safe Labour, so yet another shock result for Labour in Wales) – Website

North Yorkshire – Julia Mulligan – Conservative (as predicted) – Website

Nottinghamshire – Paddy Tipping – Labour (as expected) – Website

South Wales – Alun Michael – Labour (as predicted – a relief for Labour to get 1 of the 4 Welsh seats) – Website

South Yorkshire – Shaun Wright – Labour (as predicted) – Website

Staffordshire – Matthew Ellis – Conservative (predicted Too Close To Call, with Labour ahead) – Website

Suffolk – Tim Passmore – Conservative (predicted Too Close to Call, with Conservatives ahead) – Website

Surrey – Kevin Hurley – Independent (predicted Conservative, but in August I suggested this seat could effectively host an unofficial Primary election after the Conservatives did not shortlist Hurley) – Website – TopOfTheCops Candidate Statement

Sussex – Katy Bourne – Conservative (as predicted) – Website

Thames Valley – Anthony Stansfeld – Conservative (as predicted) – Website

Warwickshire – Ron Ball – Independent (predicted Too Close To Call, with Conservatives ahead) – Website

West Mercia – Bill Longmore – Independent (predicted safe Conservative) – Website

West Midlands – Bob Jones – Labour (as predicted)– Website – TopOfTheCops Candidate Statement

West Yorkshire – Marks Burns-Williamson – Labour (as predicted) –Website

Wiltshire – Angus MacPherson – Conservative (as predicted) – Website

Detailed area and aggregated data can be found:-

Bernard Rix's site including a natty swingometer

The Guardian

The Home Office

The Association of PCCs

The Police Foundation

You can also find some useful info and analysis of the Independents at Jon Harvey's website here.

 

Posted in Resources | Leave a comment

Early results show few, but thoughtful, voters

Posted on 16/11/2012 by samchapman

I’ve been doing media interviews this morning, so thought I should start my own results coverage online by summing up what I think we are learning about the election. I should mention that Bernard Rix has been running his own excellent unofficial results coverage in the morning if you need instant access to the figures.

Firstly the turnout is disappointingly low, generally hovering in the mid-teens. Many voters have told me they have had nothing from candidates and were not going to vote. On the one hand this is a little encouragement to those of us who push out such material, often wondering whether it is read and makes a difference, but on the other it raises the question over whether central provision of a candidates booklet would have been a help. My own suspicion is that the greater factor is that when people are asked to make a decision they need to have a choice, and it has not always been evident what difference supporting a particular candidate would make, with a number choosing safe generic promises to tackle crime and Anti-Social Behaviour over anything that contained insight.

However, as Michael Crick has said, people are making too much of turnout. Next time the PCC elections will be together with the local elections, and the plan is that they coincide with the 2020 general election after that. For turnout the only way is up, and no-one who accepted the legitimacy of unelected police authorities can criticise PCCs for lacking a mandate.

Secondly, we have a number of real upsets from Independents Martyn Underhill in Dorset, Ian Johnston in Gwent, Winston Roddick in North Wales – the last two confounding my expectations that a split in the Independent vote would prove terminal. That points to the voters who did turn out making a discerning choice. These perhaps are the people who did peruse the papers, google the candidates, visit this and other sites, and made a conscious and informed decision as to who was best. When I forecast opinion poll results to get a baseline for these elections I despaired at tribal splits and asked readers to make me wrong, and you have done me proud!

Thirdly, there is an element of defiance of parties who take the voters for granted. Christopher Salmon’s surprise win in Dyfed-Powys for the Conservatives was their best chance, but it means both that he has done very well, and that Christine Gwyther has done very badly. Labour will be shocked, having lost at least three of four opportunities in Wales.

But that third element has a specific point of detail. I have gone on at length on this site and elsewhere about how the parties needed to listen to what three different pieces of research were telling them about what type of candidate was preferred. All the research showed a clear and distinct preference for police experience over political time-serving in this role. Parties ignore such a clear message at their peril and the election of a growing number of former officers in the first few results backs this up. Perhaps parties would have done better if they had given the public the candidates they wanted?

The final of my first thoughts is this – a YouGov poll at the weekend showed 28% of the population as certain to vote, with plenty more just behind them. That obviously did not happen. I’m not saying that there was anything wrong with YouGov’s maths, but there is a hidden assumption with polling – namely that what people say they will do, think they will do, and actually do, are clearly not always the same thing.

Posted in Perspectives | 4 Comments

Getting Away With It

Posted on 15/11/2012 by samchapman

Today, yes, election day, at 4.29 pm I received information from Lancashire Police Authority which I first requested from them on 3 October. It is over 6 weeks later, and 2 weeks beyond the legal limit for a Freedom of Information request. I will let you draw your own conclusions from this story:—

Those who have been following TopOfTheCops will be familiar with Clive Grunshaw, Labour candidate for Lancashire, who I have christened “the gift that keeps on giving”.

I have raised with you the fact that one reason he may have secured the Labour nomination in Lancashire was that, unlike the other two contenders, he had £5,000 of in-kind help from Unite the Union in the form of mailshots to Labour members during the selection campaign.

 

1 – The Electoral Commission

The donation came in two tranches of £2,500, putting it above the £1,500 limit that required Councillor Grunshaw to report it within 30-60 days (depending on when you measure from). The first tranche was declared late. The Electoral Commission can decide to prosecute or to issue their own penalty. In any event, they decided to do neither. Councillor Grunshaw got away with it.

 

2 – The Labour Party

Failure to comply with the law in this regard is a breach of the Labour Party’s Code for PCCs. Cllr Grunshaw knows all about that – he was disciplined under it for negative campaigning against his rivals in the selection process, but if they have also disciplined him for his failure to comply with the law, they’ve not publicised it. Looks like he’s got away with that one.

 

3 – Lancashire Police Authority

On 19 September I revealed on TopOfTheCops that Cllr Grunshaw had received these donations. On 20 September I emailed the Chief Executive of Lancashire Police Authority to ask whether the Register of Interests that Councillor Grunshaw had on their website was still current and to ask whether he ought not to have declared his in-kind benefits from Unite the Union, and to ask the Authority to investigate the non-declaration if he was obliged to report the payments.

On 2 October she emailed a reply that stated “County Councillor Clive Grunshaw asked for advice with regard to a Declaration of Interest by letter dated 14th September and I advised him that he did have a declarable interest.” She said he had then completed the relevant notification and so had complied.

This struck me as odd. Cllr Grunshaw had declared these donations to the Electoral  Commission in July, not declared them to the Police Authority for 2 months and then apparently remembered to check with the Chief Executive in a letter dated before my article. Really?

So on 3 October I asked her when the authority had received the ‘letter dated 14 September’, and 3 other questions I’ll not bore you with right now. It took 13 days to get a reply on 16 October, which stated that Cllr Grunshaw had complied with the requirements of Standards legislation in respect of his disclosure, and that he had resigned on 7th October to stand for election as a PCC, and so was no longer subject to a Standards regime. Curiously the letter did not provide any of the information requested, including the arrival date of his 14 September letter.

On 31 October, I reminded the Authority that they still owed me on that very day the answers to those questions, at which point they appeared surprised to discover that my request for information was a Freedom of Information request. My email was then treated as a request to review the Authority’s decision not to provide any further information on my request of 3 October, and today, two weeks later, I received the results of that review.

Guess what – the letter dated 14 September is date stamped as received by the Police Authority on 24 September 2012 – a whole 10 days later! I’ve heard of snail-mail, but this is ridiculous. Furthermore, it is now suggested that the Chief Executive spoke to Councillor Grunshaw about the matter on 12 September.

The response I have on whether Councillor Grunshaw was in breach of the Authority’s Code of Conduct states that the interest only had to be declared within 28 days of him becoming aware of it, and argues, in my view rather tenuously, that this is to be dated from when the Chief Executive spoke with him, rather than when he actually received the donation several months earlier, which seems to me to make a mockery of the entire Code of Conduct.

But Councillor Grunshaw is now beyond the reach of the Code of Conduct. If he did break it, he has gotten away with it. But the idea that a letter takes 10 days to get the 20-odd miles from Fleetwood to Preston is almost as incredible as the facts that the Police Authority refused to reveal that information for so long, or that an investigation into a potential breach of the Code of Conduct was not launched when I requested it.

Draw your own conclusions.

Posted in Perspectives | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Make me wrong.

Posted on 15/11/2012 by samchapman

Today, you can make me wrong.

Not just a little wrong but very wrong.

My post yesterday listed predicted baselines against which we can assess the election results. It has largely been supported by Jon Collins of the Police Foundation (check the comments section and you'll see). Some folk at The Guardian tell me they hope to use it in their election day paper. It's certainly had plenty of views, perhaps because more sensible people have backed away from making anything that looks like a prediction in one of the most unpredictable elections in recent British political history. (Not all though – see Mike Smithson and John Curtice)

But I wrote it with a heavy heart.

You see, I don't want people to vote for their favourite colour. I want them to vote for the best candidate.

That's why I've run this site for the past 9 months – so that you would have as much information as you could to help you decide. The fact that you are reading these words suggests that you are one of those people who doesn't have to wait for a slice of dead tree to come through your door in order for you to be informed. Right now you are just clicks away from finding out how best to cast your vote, so resist the temptation to whinge about overworked candidates not getting to your door among a million others. The people who fought and died for your vote never had as much information as close to hand in any of their elections as you have right now.

Neither did they, or you, or I, ever have the chance to have such a direct say in how we will be policed or in how crime will be dealt with where we live. Yes, the government may have fluffed some elements of this election, but more importantly they have done what no other government has done – they have given us a choice. It is up to us now to use it.

So read a little, think a little, make up your mind, and go and vote.

I've been fortunate to meet many of the candidates in these elections. I've spoken with them, corresponded with them, and got a feel for what they are really like, and plenty of them are quite good. This leaves me with a real sense of pity if people decide solely on tribal loyalties, whether that be the traditional party tribes, or the new anti-party tribe, for there are good and bad in all. That party label is an important shortcut to key political views, and I'm glad voters have that information to help them decide, but it isn't everything.

So I would like to be wrong.

I would like no candidate to feel 'safe' because of where they are standing, and no good candidate to be wasted because of where they live. I would like some Independents, the right ones, to win. I would like it not to be predictable.

Today you have two votes. Use them wisely. Use them both.

Make me wrong.

 

Posted in Perspectives | Tagged | 17 Comments

Be of good cheer

Posted on 14/11/2012 by samchapman

Any of you who are feeling sad having read the last post on baselines for the election results, should head on over to MSN News UK where you can find a few words of cheer from your's truly.

 

Posted in Perspectives | 1 Comment

Reading the runes

Posted on 14/11/2012 by samchapman

Elections can be very unpredictable, and this one may be more so than most. We don't know the impact local candidates have been having. We don't know who has managed some form of contact with electors which their opponents have not. We don't know how many will vote, and how inclined people will be to support Independents rather than parties.

But we did have some rather good quality research from the Police Foundation earlier in the election applying opinion poll shifts and likely second preferences to the general election numbers. We also have data on how the opinion polls have shifted since and we now know what the Police Foundation couldn't have known, namely where the Liberal Democrats are fielding candidates. Add these to a few bits of knowledge about events that may have impacted on the election and it is possible to have a look at what the results might be, other things being equal, which of course they aren't.

I'll not go into the detailed stats, as 41 opportunities to be wrong in one day has seen off many others who would be in a better place to make predictions, and is quite enough for me. However, it would be useful to have something to compare the actual results with. I cannot tell you whose campaign is going well or badly, or which candidates really have turned out to be best in electoral terms, but estimating what the general trends mean for each area may enable us to see who has done particularly well or badly when the real results are known.

So, without further ado, and pausing only to point out that I'd really have preferred to do this off local election data than off national opinion polls that offer broad outlines of party support, this is the list of probable PCCs I am left with on my sums. I wonder how many I'll get right.

 

Labour – 19

Cheshire – John Stockton

Cleveland – Barry Coppinger on 1st Pref

Cumbria – Patrick Leonard

Derbyshire – Alan Charles on 1st Pref

Durham – Ron Hogg on 1st Pref

Dyfed-Powys – Christine Gwyther (no second preferences as only 2 candidates)

Greater Manchester -Tony Lloyd on 1st Pref

Gwent – Hamish Sandison on 1st Pref

Humberside – John Prescott

Lancashire – Clive Grunshaw

Leicestershire – Sarah Russell

Merseyside – Jane Kennedy on 1st Pref

Northumbria – Vera Baird on 1st Pref

North Wales – Tal Michael on 1st Pref

Nottinghamshire – Paddy Tipping on 1st Pref

South Wales – Alun Michael on 1st Pref

South Yorkshire – Shaun Wright on 1st Pref

West Midlands – Bob Jones on 1st Pref

West Yorkshire – Mark Burns-Williamson on 1st Pref

 

Conservatives -14

Cambridgeshire – Sir Graham Bright

Devon and Cornwall – Tony Hogg

Essex – Nick Alston

Dorset – Nick King

Hampshire – Michael Mates

Hertfordshire – David Lloyd

Kent – Craig Mackinlay

Northamptonshire – Adam Simmonds

North Yorkshire – Julia Mulligan (no second preferences as only 2 candidates)

Surrey – Julie Iles on 1st Prefs

Sussex – Katy Bourne

Thames Valley – Anthony Stansfeld

West Mercia – Adrian Blackshaw on 1st prefs (just)

Wiltshire – Angus Macpherson

 

Way Too Close To Call (within 3% of each other) – 8

Avon and Somerset – Labour's John Savage slightly ahead

Bedfordshire – Labour's Olly Martins slightly ahead

Gloucestershire – Labour's Rupi Dhanda slightly ahead, unless the voters have been listening to her comments about refusing to police the badger cull

Lincolnshire – Conservative Richard Davies slightly ahead

Norfolk – Labour's Steve Morphew slightly ahead, but only because former-Conservative-turned-Independent Stephen Bett will split off some Conservative votes

Staffordshire – Labour's Joy Garner slightly ahead in this two-horse race

Suffolk – Conservative Tim Passmore slightly ahead

Warwickshire – Fraser Pithie slightly ahead


In this model Labour's total is 24, with 17 likely for the Conservatives, and many Labour candidates are elected on first preferences alone, suggesting the real election was in the early part of the year, when candidates in some areas were chosen.

The great unknown is the Independents. I don't personally see any Independents making it on their own, but there could be a national surge towards Independents. If that happens then, in my view, 4 in particular are worth watching, for different reasons – Martyn Underhill in Dorset, Ann Barnes in Kent, John Norrie in Northamptonshire and Ian Chisnall in Sussex.

That's my best guess – what's your's, and what would it mean?

Posted in Perspectives, Resources | 19 Comments

Candidate Statement of Kevin Hurley

Posted on 13/11/2012 by samchapman

Kevin Hurley is standing for Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner as an Independent under the banner of “Zero Tolerance Policing ex Chief“

 

Take a Zero Tolerance Policing Approach

I will lead a relentless focus on those who blight our lives: Anti Social Louts, Violent Bullies, Burglars and those who deal drugs to our young people. We will seize the profits of their crime.

More visible street policing

I will use my experience to reduce expenditure on back office roles and use the ill gotten gains of criminals to pay for beat officers

Put Victims at the centre of the Criminal Justice system

I will ensure that victims are given a quality service from reporting a crime to giving evidence. The professionals in the Courts and Police work for you, sometimes they forget .

Give you the opportunity to have a greater say in how your streets are policed

I will set up local policing boards to bring decision making closer to neighbourhoods. You will be able to participate and have your views heard.

Protect your local policing

I will work with Police Chiefs to maintain the morale and ethos of service of your officers. I will do this by supporting them against unreasonable criticism and ensuring their voice is heard. We cannot expect them to take on the criminals unless we back them. I will be uncompromising in the standards you expect from your police. With public support comes an expectation that your police delivery a quality service. I will expect the Chiefs to inspire their officers and unlock their passion to deliver a professional, courteous and positive approach to policing. You pay for it you have a right to expect it.

 

Posted in Candidate Statements, Independents | Tagged | 3 Comments

Candidate Statement of David Rogers

Posted on 13/11/2012 by samchapman

David Rogers is the Liberal Democrat Candidate for Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner

I’ve lived in Sussex for nearly 40 years, over 35 of them as an elected councillor. My children grew up here. It’s a great place to live. Now I want to make it even better and safer.

I know and understand all parts of our diverse area, as during that time I’ve lived in Brighton & Hove, West Sussex and East Sussex.



My priorities:

  • Cutting bureaucracy to help the police spend more time on the streets
  • Giving new powers to communities to tackle anti-social behaviour
  • A new approach to community sentencing
  • Targeting extra resources to cut all forms of domestic violence



As a long-standing member of the Sussex Police Authority until three years ago, including a two-year term as Chair (2001-3), I have a strong track record of working on crime and disorder across Sussex.

It is vital that the new Police Commissioner should stand up for a common-sense approach to crime and antisocial behaviour, as many police officers want.


Work together to cut crime

The Police and Crime Commissioner must work in partnership with others, including councils and local health organisations.

  • Alcohol is a factor in about 44% of violent crime: I will work with the Accident and Emergency services at Sussex hospitals, and local councils, to address these issues.
  • One million women in England & Wales experience domestic violence each year; health services can help support them to report this.
  • Drug users are responsible for over one third of acquisitive crime like burglary: effective treatment can cut their crime levels by about half.

I hope that residents across Sussex will back me on November 15th to act for them.


With best wishes,


David Rogers

Liberal Democrat Candidate for Police and Crime Commissioner

www.david4safersussex.com

Posted in Candidate Statements, Liberal Democrats | Tagged | Leave a comment