I am very proud to have been selected as the Labour police and crime commissioner candidate for Gloucestershire. That said, many people, including both the general public and Labour members, are not that enthusiastic about police and crime commissioners – and the party is not exactly pulling out all the stops to help candidates.
The PCC role is here until at least 2020, and I believe that the Labour party should be pushing hard to get Labour PCCs up and down the county. However, there is a case to be made for strong pushes in predominantly Conservative areas to reduce the impact of the cuts to our communitites, where a Tory PCC will just do as they are told and hand down cuts.
PCCs have direct influence over the strategic direction and budget of the police, and that means direct influence of the number of police in our communities. A PCC can also direct funding towards supporting third sector organisations that support victims and education projects to reduce crime before it becomes an issue. A Labour police and crime plan will look very different to a Tory one.
Many people suggest that the PCC should be a non-political appointment, or at least non-party political. However, I now believe that residents are better served by a candidate who is willing to nail their colours to the mast. Having to campaign in a large police area like Gloucestershire, if you are a party candidate then electors know what basic principles the candidate will be working from, even if they have not been able to meet the candidate themselves. An independent candidate is simply an unknown quantity Independent candidates still have a political ideology, the big difference is that we simply do not know what it is – they do not declare it.
The Tories are on the biggest ideologically driven destruction of our communities and they will continue until the next general election in 2020. Tory PCCs will, by their own admission, see the cost of the police reduce, stripping away and privatising what it can. A Labour PCC would be in a singularly good position to protect our thin blue line, ensuring that the police are valued by the community they serve to engage communitites, support victims and reducing crime. This is what I will do if elected on 5 May.
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Barry Kirby is police and crime commissioner candidate for Gloucestershire. He tweets @BK4PCC
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