gloucestershire pcc Tag

Lies damned lies and statistics, its been the running theme from one of the PCC candidates in this years election* (and also last years postponed election). The willingness to simply trot out facts and figures, without any context, painting a negative picture of our county, in an apparent effort to win votes seems to fly directly in the face of one his election ‘pledges’ to ‘stamp out spin’. It feels something akin to the Trump play book of politics where people are quite happy to fan the fear of crime for political ends.

Giving the public a voice on local policing issues was one, if not the most important reason that Police & Crime Commissioners were created in 2012, and it’s something I take exceedingly seriously. How that voice is heard and how it’s communicated to the chief constable and his officers is an important question, perhaps best illustrated by an increase in pet thefts over this last year. 

I was delighted to see Gloucestershire ahead of the rest for its vaccine roll out, which calls for an unequivocal big thank you to all the surgeries, vaccine centres, volunteers, firefighters and many others who made it possible. 

But could we do even better?

Automatic Number Plate Recognition verses the General Data Protection Regulation.. a battle of the acronyms. But ... it’s now official - privacy law will not get in the way of educating speeding motorists. That's what nearly happened though, but thankfully due to communities not accepting it and with the backing from my office - sense has prevailed.

... investing now for the future. In my 2016 manifesto I talked about investing in the future of the force, its people and its infrastructure that became part of my Police & Crime plan, see page 5   . Today we launched a consultation on plans for the forces new operations centre based a Bamfurlong.

Road safety for me remains one of my key priorities as Gloucestershire's Police & Crime Commissioner. But a report out this week by  HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) has said that roads policing in England and Wales has become less important.  HM Inspector of Constabulary Matt Parr said: 
“Our inspection suggests that roads policing, despite the number of road deaths plateauing and likely to increase, is seen as less of a priority than it should be.

The report was critical of some of my PCC colleagues who don't include road safety in their police and crime plans or make little reference, that is despite the high number of people still killed on the country’s roads each year.

To meet this newspaper’s print deadlines * , I am required to submit copy for this column by the Tuesday before publication at the latest. I leave the subject as late as possible to make it topical and stick to local issues to make it relevant.

I was about to submit this week’s offering when the latest pictures of the riots in America following the death of George Floyd appeared on TV. It was easy to see why it was the first story, other than the daily update on coronavirus, to lead our national news bulletins.