Police Commissioners

The Skype’s the limit

PCC Bob Jones follows in the West Midlands Police’s foot-steps in adopting digital platforms

By:
Published August 5, 2013, in Police Commissioners, Politics

Bob Jones

West Midlands PCC Bob Jones is to hold his first ever “Skype surgery” this Friday as part of his efforts to further embrace social media and digital platforms.

Speaking about the surgery, Bob Jones said, “I’m a firm believer in being as open, transparent and accessible as possible […] new technologies like Twitter, webchats and Skype enable more people to be involved. “

Bob Jones has been a surprising advocate of social media. Last Thursday Jones conducted a web-chat on the West Midlands PCC website.

Jones fielded questions on a diverse array of topics from the social media campaign ‘Pup Idol’  run by Jones to highlight the use of dogs in policing  to more serious questions regarding the recent EDL march and the English’s “right to protest” without fear from “violent, hate-filled, far-Left/Islamic counter protests against the democratic English Defence League.”

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How plain talking Bob faced down extremists

Waseem Zaffar salutes Bob Jones' efforts to smooth tensions

By:
Published July 26, 2013, in Opinion, Police Commissioners

Bob Jones

In recent weeks, when tensions have been running high in Birmingham and the West Midlands with three mosques attacked and an 82 year old pensioner brutally murdered outside a mosque, many in senior positions from all parties have remained silent. Bob Jones, by contrast, has been steadfast and vocal. His solidarity with all communities hasn’t gone unnoticed.

At times, some have challenged his proactive approach and his frankness, but Bob is an honest man with real integrity. Fairness and equality underpin all his work.

His statement prior to the visit of the EDL to Birmingham was the strongest stance taken by an official during the four years that the EDL have been holding ‘static’ demonstrations in Birmingham:

“With the significant challenges that the West Midlands Police and the  community of Birmingham face, the disruption and potential disorder  seen at previous events in Walsall and Dudley is totally unwanted by the vast majority of the population.

The demonstration will cause anxiety and is an attempt to exploit recent incidents. This protest is a distraction from ensuring that  victims of those incidents and their families get the justice they  deserve.  Police time is better spent in neighbourhoods tackling the crimes which matter most to local people.”

Furthermore, Bob has been hugely approachable and accessible to all communities. I and many others have arranged meetings between Bob and various groups in the past few weeks, including Muslim community activists, Imams and scholars, Mosque trustees, young Muslims and groups of non-Muslims concerned at the rise of Islamophbia and other hate crime.

There has been a clear expectation of Bob to take leadership on behalf of his electorate and seek a solution to the important issue of far-right extremism. He has not let us down.

This weekend’s EDL demonstration in Birmingham sought to spread hatred and divide a super-diverse city which is home to people from all over the world. Since 2007, people from 187 different countries have made Birmingham their home. Our cohesive Birmingham stood tall in unity while a couple of thousand unpleasant and unwanted one-day-immigrants wrestled with the Police on our streets.

The squeezed middle – 80% of police officers are aged 31 to 50

Bobbies get fitness advice on how to run 540m in under three-and-a-half minutes

By:
Published July 2, 2013, in Police Commissioners

Bob Jones

The notion that police officers are getting younger has been blown apart in the West Midlands where the force has conceded that its uniformed establishment is dangerously middle aged.

Three years of austerity, which has meant no recruitment of school and university leavers, as well as a compulsory redundancy policy for the over-50s, means that 80 per cent of the region’s police officers are aged between 31 and 50.

Only 16 per cent of 7,744 uniformed officers are under 30, while just six per cent are over 50.

And with very limited recruitment of new officers unlikely to start much before 2015, the force’s squeezed middle is certain to get even larger.

This year a further 152 officers are expected to be subject to what’s known as the A19 rule. This forces retirement on anyone who is over 50 and has served more than 30 years. Next year, a further 101 officers will fall foul of the A19 procedure.

The result, police chiefs have conceded, is a gradual drain of highly experienced officers who are not being replaced at the bottom end by bright graduates.

The A19 ruling was reluctantly enforced by police commissioner Bob Jones as a means of

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‘It’s far too easy to sack the chief constable’, warns Commissioner Jones

Politics and personality clashes will motivate leadership changes rather than sound professional evidence

By:
Published July 1, 2013, in Police Commissioners

It is unclear whether Chris Sims should be concerned or not, but West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Bob Jones is stressing about the power he has to sack under-performing chief constables.

Commissioner Jones has warned that by allowing politicians like him to hire and fire the likes of Mr Sims the government runs the risk that “personality clashes” will motivate change in force leadership rather than any sound evidence that chief constables are not up to the job.

Mr Jones, a former Labour councillor, suggests rather cynically that the requirement of commissioners to seek a public mandate for re-election every four years might “drive leadership decisions rather than proper longer term professional considerations for the benefit of the public”.

His comments are made on the West Mids PCC Facebook page, in a well-argued which is another shot in a campaign to end the “politicised” PCC systemand bring back the former police authority, of which Mr Jones was a longstanding member.

He makes the point that in pre-PCC days it was extremely difficult to sack chief constables and that disciplinary action could only be taken by the police authority after consulting Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary (HMIC). Now, Commissioners have no links with HMIPC and if they want to dispense with the services of a chief constable can

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Police face sat nav tracking to monitor stop and search requests

Spy in sky to collect data on possible racial discrimination by West Mids bobbies

By:
Published June 19, 2013, in Police Commissioners

Police officers in Birmingham and the West Midlands could soon be tracked by satellite navigation systems to monitor whether the use of ‘stop and search’ powers amounts to racial discrimination.

Plans to use GPS to record officers’ every move are being proposed by Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner Yvonne Mosquito, who wants to develop a portal allowing anyone to check to “see where stops are taking place” and to make sure ethnic minorities are not being picked on.

Insisting that she wants to “take police officers with us on a journey”, Ms Mosquito has published a 2,200 word setting out her views on the use of stop and search and the less intrusive ‘stop and account’ powers.

Ms Mosquito, a Birmingham Labour councillor, says that she and police commissioner Bob Jones  accept there is a widespread perception that stop and search powers are not being used proportionately by officers.

But they can’t be sure whether this is the case since a lack of accurate data makes it impossible to prove allegations of discrimination, she adds.

While police officers must record every time they stop and search a suspect, there is no requirement to record stop and account requests which are sometimes used for ‘voluntary’ searches, she claims.

Ms Mosquito, who is of Afro-Caribbean heritage, is to host a public summit to discuss stop and search in Birmingham in September.

Stop and search has been a “source of tension between the police and, in particular,

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