Police commissioner

Another 2,000 West Midlands police jobs face the axe

Commissioner warns new cuts could plunge falling crime figures into reverse


policeA further 2,000 West Midlands police jobs could be axed as a result of Government spending cuts.

The figure was revealed by Police Commissioner Bob Jones, who warned that a continued cull of uniformed officers might send into reverse a recent record fall in recorded crime.

Mr Jones said “alarming” proposals for a further 10 per cent cut in police budgets over four years from 2015, outlined recently by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander, posed a real risk

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Police chief Bob Jones appoints three assistants – all Labour councillors

One Tory, a Lib Dem and business representatives also join strategic police board


Bob Jones

Bob Jones

West Midlands Police Commissioner Bob Jones has appointed three assistants, and they are all Labour councillors.

Faye Abbott (Coventry), Judy Foster (Dudley) and Mohammed Nazir (Walsall) will be paid £22,500 for a two and a half day week.

The three will be expected to act as “champions” with responsibility for specific areas including victims, health, technology, equalities, human rights, and business, Mr Jones said.

They will sit on a new Strategic Policing and Crime Board alongside Mr Jones and his deputy, Birmingham Labour councillor Yvonne Mosquito.

It remains unclear whether the three will follow the example set by Mr Jones and resign as councillors. Ms Mosquito has said she intends to remain a Birmingham councillor.

Four non-executive members of the new board were also appointed by Mr Jones.

They are

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New cash crisis for West Midlands Police

Force facing £26 million bill on top of £112 million cuts


The West Midlands’ first Police and Crime Commissioner could face an immediate £26 million black hole in the force budget, making yet more spending cuts highly likely.

Although the police authority has already identified £112 million in austerity savings by 2015, with the loss of 1,000 front-line officers, the body’s chairman has warned of more crippling financial pressure from a range of Government measures.

Bishop Derek Webley, who is an Independent candidate for Police Commissioner, has written to all West Midlands MPs asking for their support in lobbying Policing Minister Nick Herbert.

The financial issues identified by Mr Webley are:

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Give contracts to local firms, PCC candidates urged

West Midlands businesses don't get enough work from police, Chamber of Commerce claims


The West Midlands’ first Police and Crime Commissioner must make sure the force buys a higher proportion of its supplies and services from local firms, business leaders are demanding.

Birmingham Chamber of Commerce believes the PCC should play an active role in supporting job creation and growth in the region by making sure that more of the £624 million police budget is re-invested in the local economy.

The demand is part of a manifesto for the PCC drawn up by the Chamber following consultation with hundreds of businesses in Birmingham and Solihull

Regionally-based firms should be encouraged to compete for West Midlands Police contracts and more should be done to promote open competition, according to the manifesto.

Only 13 per cent of local businesses currently provide supplies and services to the force.

The manifesto states: “Whilst the tendering process for police contracts needs to be fair to all more can be done to encourage regionally-based businesses to compete in the first place.

“With £79.9 million of West Midlands Police Force’s budget coming from their council tax requirement, it is essential that more is done to ensure a proportion of that money is reinvested in the local economy.”

However, the extent to which a commissioner could reward Birmingham firms with work is unclear. Procurement for major police force items, including vehicles and uniforms, is handled nationally by the Government and a PCC would be unable to intervene.

Unsuprisingly, tackling business-related crime is at the top of the Chamber’s agenda.

Describing businesses as “forgotten victims”, the Chamber claims that crime costs West Midlands firms more than £200,000 a day on average.

Almost one third of businesses said in a Chamber survey that they had been the victims of crime in the past 12 months. Three-quarters believed that firms would be put off from locating in an area perceived to suffer from a large number of offences.

“In order to attract and retain businesses, and therefore improve the local economy and create jobs, we need the elected PCC to be tough on business crime,” the manifesto states.

Half of businesses who had been the victims of crime did not bother to report incidents, with 64 per cent of survey respondents declaring they had no confidence in the police response.

Many businesses remain unaware of police crime-fighting projects.

Almost half of respondents were unaware of community safety initiatives in their area, while those who did know about the schemes had no idea whether they were effective.

The Chamber is urging the PCC to appoint an advisor to represent the views of the business community.

The manifesto was launched at the first West Midlands ‘hustings’ meeting, featuring six of the eight candidates for police commissioner – Matt Bennett (Con), Bill Etheridge (UKIP), Cath Hannon (Ind), Bob Jones (Lab), Ayoub Khan (Lib Dem) and Mike Rumble (Ind).

All of the speakers promised to make tackling business crime and anti-social behaviour priorities, as well as finding ways to make the police force more efficient.

Elections for police commissioners in England and Wales will be held on November 15.

 

 


Getting exciting, isn’t it? Just 82 days and 8 hours (at the time of typing) till polling stations open for the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) elections on 15th November. At least, that’s what Birmingham City Council newsroom’s says. It’s been running for nearly three weeks now and, given the dearth of information emanating from the Government, is well worth a visit.

It particularly is if you happen to be planning to set your alarm for polling day. There’s a competing countdown clock on the website, set up to boost the participation of British Muslims in our national life, but it’s set 12 hours behind the Council’s, which, even allowing for the extra hour at the end of British Summer Time, seems odd. Unless it’s a tactic aimed at generating a last-minute voting surge and repeating the queuing embarrassment caused at several polling stations at the General Election.

If so, I fear it’s seriously misconceived. Voting, let alone queuing, seems likely to be at a premium. A couple of weeks ago, we heard an embarrassed, and embarrassing, Nick Herbert, Minister for Policing and Criminal Justice, repeatedly refuse to tell the BBC Today programme’s Evan Davis whether a turnout as low as 15% would be acceptable for this radical and controversial innovation. Evidently it would – any turnout at all, in the Minister’s view, representing greater democratic legitimacy than the present system of appointed police authorities.

Davis’ 15% seemed to be plucked from the proverbial thin air, but we now have something apparently much more authoritative. The Electoral Reform Society (ERS) have done some sums and are asserting that the PCC elections “are set to have the lowest voter turnout of modern times – projected at 18.5%” (their emphasis). Brilliant – not ‘under 20%’, or 19%, or ‘around 18%’, but an eye-catchingly precise 18.5%. And, judging from the frequency with which the projection has been quoted, it’s worked – even though none of the mentions I’ve seen either explain or question just how the categorical claim was arrived at. I’m trusting, dear readers, that you may be a tad more curious.

In fact, the methodology is disarmingly simple: you think of a baseline number, then subtract stuff from it. The baseline figure chosen by the ERS is 34%, on the grounds that “recent local election turnouts are in this region”. Surprisingly, considering how fundamental it is to the whole exercise, there is no further justification, yet it is certainly questionable.

One difficulty is that the ‘region’ in which recent local turnouts have fallen is actually rather large. This year was calamitous – a 32% turnout in the English local elections taken as a whole. It was also, however, the lowest overall percentage for 12 years.

Last year’s picture was significantly different. The overall average turnout across English authorities was around 43%, comprising all metropolitan boroughs (38%), and most of the unitaries (41%) and shire districts (44%). Birmingham and Coventry, 28.4% and 27% this year, both managed 37% in 2011, and these disparities between the two years were not exceptional.

I’m not suggesting that 2011 was more typical than 2012. Part of the reason it was ‘good’ was that it was the year in our four-year electoral cycle when the ‘all-out’ district and unitary councils are elected, and they consistently produce higher turnouts than those electing their members one-third at a time. All the English councils voting in 2012 elect by thirds, have elections in three years out of four, and, perhaps not surprisingly, have relatively lower turnouts.

All I suggest, then, is that 2012 was not typical, at least of the past decade. Yet, in choosing 34% as a baseline, ERS have picked a figure that, while 2% higher than 2012, is at least 2% and generally around 4% lower than any other aggregate figure in the past 10 years.

The remainder of the ERS projection involves estimating the percentage drop in turnout likely to be caused by three additional turnout variables, and subtracting these estimates from the 34% baseline.

First of the three is the fact that the PCC elections will take place in cheerless November, rather than what in most years ought to be the lustier month of May. Voter turnout in council by-elections has been shown to be statistically related to the number of hours polling stations are open in daylight, and therefore to sunset times. Studying over 4,000 by-elections held between 1983 and 1999, Professors Rallings and Thrasher of Plymouth University’s Local Elections Centre found a 6.6% average difference between turnouts in May by-elections (38.1%) and those in November (31.5%). Call it 6%, and the 34% drops down to 28%.

Secondly, there is the Government’s refusal to allocate state funding for mailshots, as in parliamentary elections, in which information about each candidate is posted out to voters. At up to £35 million it would be too expensive, say ministers. Instead, there will be an information pack from the Electoral Commission to all households, explaining about the elections, and a single national website, giving details of all candidates that will be posted free to those electors motivated to request them.

There is parliamentary election evidence that turnout can be boosted by up to a third when candidates receive mailings both from sitting MPs and their main challengers. There are no free mailings in local elections, so it could be argued that this factor has already been allowed for in choosing a local turnout figure for a baseline. The ERS, however, think it needs to be further adjusted, by a rather arbitrary 5.5% – so we’re down now to 22.5%.

Finally, there’s the absence of party political broadcasts. Derided as they often justifiably are, PPBs have been shown to be at least as effective as local campaigns in getting a party’s less committed supporters to drag their indolent butts along to the polling station. There will be no such mobiliser this time, but the effect is hard even to begin to estimate, so let’s just say a further 4% off the baseline. And so, ladies and gentlemen, we’re left with a projected turnout of 18.5%. It’s not rocket science, hardly even political science, but could you do any better?

 
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