There is now less than a week left before the next County Durham Police and Crime Commissioner is selected.
The next candidate for the post, which is to scrutinize and hold the police to account, will be decided in local elections on May 6.
We spoke to the three candidates vying for the job, who told us what their priorities would be should they win.
Joy Allen, work
Drumming for fairer funding for the police service in Darlington and County Durham must be a top priority for the next commissioner, Labor candidate Joy Allen said.
Ms Allen, whose career has seen her working for public sector bodies such as councils, police and fire departments and leading partnerships to tackle anti-social behavior, believes the Commissioner’s main challenge will be to bring more police back to the streets and to obtain justice for the victims.
She said: “Victims’ confidence right now is at an all-time low.
“There are more cases than ever that fail due to the non-cooperation of victims and this now accounts for a quarter of all cases.
“As Commissioner, I will stand up and defend the rights of victims.”
Ms Allen said victims of sexual violence were abandoned with only one in 50 rape allegations leading to a charge.
This situation, she says, has been exacerbated by court closures over the past decade.
She added: “More and more criminals go unpunished while victims are left in limbo for years as the justice system comes to a halt.”
In response, its strategy would focus on crime prevention, but to do so, it would seek the support of other commissioners across the country to demand more equitable government funding for police services.
She said the Durham Force’s tax collection capacity was limited due to the high proportion of low township tax rate brackets.
She said: ‘In County Durham and Darlington a 1% tax hike brings in around £ 2.3million, while in Surrey a 1% increase brings in around £ 10million.’
As a result, she said, Durham’s force had lost 400 officers since 2010, while Surrey had seen its officer count cut by just 57 over the same period.
When asked if she supports the position of previous Commissioner Ron Hogg on the decriminalization of drugs, she replied that she was an evidence-based politician.
She said: “Drug addiction destroys lives and spreads crime and the fear of crime and puts money in the hands of organized criminals.
“We will target and disrupt illicit drug dealers, prosecute offenders and bring them to justice, but we need to support addicts who often turn to crime to fund their habit.”
Anne-Marie Curry, Liberal Democrat
Developing partnerships with communities and public bodies such as councils and the NHS is essential to solidify Durham Constabulary’s position as one of the country’s most successful police forces, according to Liberal Democrat candidate Anne- Marie Curry.
She said that to tackle the persistent problem of anti-social behavior, such as irresponsible quad riding and speeding cars, more resources should also be devoted to law enforcement.
Ms Curry said: “It has to be done with a visible police force.
For the moment, insufficient resources are being injected into the fight against anti-social behavior. Regions must wait their turn to have the police off-road motorcycle team to deal with it.
“Having been a counselor, I could use this counseling link to help police enforce or minimize distractions that occur in certain areas.
“The biggest challenge for me is recruiting more police officers and police community support officers in the field, as the public loses confidence when seeing the police, so I would like to have a more police force. visible.”
While Ms Curry said she would seek to continue some of the previous commissioner’s policies, such as lobbying to decriminalize cannabis, she would review the issues facing different communities by opening discussions with residents.
Another priority would be to work with health teams to reduce the time police spend on petty crimes committed by people with mental health problems.
She added: “I hope I can work with other police forces in the region, because criminals do not see borders.
“With a lot of rural crime, people come from different areas, so more cross-border actions and intelligence sharing are needed to stop this type of crime.
“Farm Watch has been extremely helpful, but I would like to develop this so that there is better intelligence and a small, dedicated team that is working on this with other police forces to determine where these criminals are coming from and try. to trap them. “
George Jabbour, curator
The biggest problem the new Durham Police and Crime Commissioner will face when he takes office is the potential consequences of plans to centralize force guard rooms, according to the entrepreneur and founder of the charity. George …
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Source: www.chroniclelive.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-04-29 15:05:29
