The results of the Police and Crime Commissioner elections in the Northumbria area are as follows:
1. Vera Baird, Labour, 100,170 votes, 56%
2. Phil Butler, Conservatives, 45,845 votes; 25.6%
3. Alistair Baxter, UKIP, 18,876 votes, 10.6%
4. Peter Andras, Liberal Democrats, 13,916 votes, 7.8%
The turnout in the Northumbria area was 16.4%. The number of spoiled ballot papers was 3,887 representing 2.12% of all used ballot papers.
I would like to thank everybody who voted for the Liberal Democrats in the Northumbria PCC elections.
Monday 19 November 2012
Wednesday 14 November 2012
Being the right candidate for the job
I
am a local councillor in Newcastle, representing the North Jesmond ward. As a
local councillor I regularly deal with police related matters, e.g. anti-social
behaviour, night time noise.
I
am member of committees that monitor the efficiency (value-for-money) of two large
organisations (Newcastle City Council and Newcastle University), both with a budget larger than the budget of the Northumbria Police.
I
am an academic (Reader) at Newcastle University, in the School of Computing
Science, and member of the University Council, which is the governing body of
the University. I have been also member of the University Senate, which is the
highest academic body of the University.
I
have been involved in the creation of three university spin-off companies, one
of which entered the London Stock Exchange in 2007.
One
of my research interests is the analysis of large-scale organisations and I
have been involved in advising on organisational change in large organisations.
In particular I am interested in implementing and maintaining organisational
transparency and building, maintaining and managing trust within organisations.
In
the
past I have been involved as a leader in non-profit and community
organisations. One of the organisations (Civitas Foundation) that I
created as
chief executive in 1992 is a major player in the Romanian world of
non-profit
and community organisations that are active in the area of supporting
community
initiatives and local and regional development. Another organisation
(Saltwell
Bensham Resident's Association), of which I was the first vice-chairman,
successfully fought the Gateshead Council to stop the demolition of
many
Victorian houses that were considered to contribute critically to the
character
and spirit of the local community.
Please read the posts below and also earlier posts to see my views on some frequently asked questions that I received from the public and also on other issues relevant for the Police and Crime Commissioner position.
Privatisation
I do not intend to support the privatisation of police
services, but it will not be my role as PCC to decide on operational matters of
the police. This means that I will not be involved in operational decisions
about how to run services (including the inclusion of external organisations
and contractors in this). Although I will influence the policy and priority
level decisions that may have operational consequences in the sense of
including external partners. For example, the setting of the budget and the
aiming for improving the value-for-money aspect of police services may have
such consequences.
I had a meeting recently with the Chief Constable of Northumbria Police. My understanding is that there are no current plans for buying in complete services from for-profit contractors.
I had a meeting recently with the Chief Constable of Northumbria Police. My understanding is that there are no current plans for buying in complete services from for-profit contractors.
The police collaborates with a large
number of voluntary and community sector organisations which are commissioned
to contribute services that integrate with the service provided by the police,
for example in the area of victim support or drug intervention. In general I
support such collaborative arrangements with community and voluntary
organisations, and I think that these should be extended in the future.
There
are also possibly back-office services (for example the management of
commissioning) that may be run more efficiently if these are shared across
police authorities or shared with other large public organisations (for example
local authorities). I am not against such arrangements, but clearly these should
be evaluated carefully, considering all aspects and impacts of them.
There are
possibly aspects of services that can be run more efficiently through the
involvement of private companies (for example the information technology
infrastructure of the police), but I think that this does not apply to core
police services through which members of the police face directly and
personally members of the public (including people taken to police
stations).
I have no personal connection to any company that might be
interested in police contracts.
Restorative justice
I have visited recently the Northumbria Probation
Trust. They have a pilot project on implementing restorative justice and
community justice approaches. Their preliminary analysis shows a considerable
positive impact of these approaches. For example, it indicates that the rate of
re-offending is reduced by over 10% compared to other approaches.
I intend to increase the collaboration with community and voluntary organisations involved in restorative justice and community justice approaches, to show that there is an alternative to issuing a large number of ASBOs, just to look ‘tough on crime’.
I think that getting involved people committing low level crime into their communities and making them understand the unpleasant consequences of their behaviour can reduce the rate of re-offending and can improve the social integration of these people. It can also help to resolve their underlying problems that are likely to be the source of their criminal behaviour.
As a PCC I will not have direct influence on operational policing. However, I will focus on facilitating information sharing and collaboration between the police and partner organisations, including voluntary and community organisations, through the setting of priorities and influencing startegy and policies. Delivering effective restorative justice and community-based justice depends very much on good collaboration and information sharing between the police and the partner organisations (Probation Trust, health care trusts, voluntary organisations, etc.). I hope that if I am elected as PCC I can have a positive impact on these and lead to a wider scale of use of restorative justice and community-based justice.
I intend to increase the collaboration with community and voluntary organisations involved in restorative justice and community justice approaches, to show that there is an alternative to issuing a large number of ASBOs, just to look ‘tough on crime’.
I think that getting involved people committing low level crime into their communities and making them understand the unpleasant consequences of their behaviour can reduce the rate of re-offending and can improve the social integration of these people. It can also help to resolve their underlying problems that are likely to be the source of their criminal behaviour.
As a PCC I will not have direct influence on operational policing. However, I will focus on facilitating information sharing and collaboration between the police and partner organisations, including voluntary and community organisations, through the setting of priorities and influencing startegy and policies. Delivering effective restorative justice and community-based justice depends very much on good collaboration and information sharing between the police and the partner organisations (Probation Trust, health care trusts, voluntary organisations, etc.). I hope that if I am elected as PCC I can have a positive impact on these and lead to a wider scale of use of restorative justice and community-based justice.
Wildlife crime
My personal view on wildlife crime is that this is an important issue, especially in Northumberland, but also in many other parts of the Northumbria Police area. I am against unnecessary cruel behaviour against animals (e.g. fox hunting, badger baiting) and I support the current legislation on this matter. (A note: I used the word 'unnecessary' above to indicate that there are some necessary behaviours related to animals that may be considered cruel by some, although are not defined as cruelty against animals according to the law, for example killing of farm animals, or biomedical research on animals.)
Judging from the number of emails that I received related to this issue, there is considerable community support for effective enforcing of the relevant legislation about wildlife crime. As I stated above I do not intend to use my personal political views to set policing priorities, but I rather prefer to set these priorities such that they meet the preferences of local communities, including minority communities. These priorities will drive the setting of the budget.
Tuesday 13 November 2012
Baird comments reveal fundamental distrust of public she’d serve
I have said consistently
that I believe the primary duty of an elected PCC will be to improve
communications between the police and the public, and that if elected that will
be my priority.
So you can imagine my
concern when I saw the reply Labour candidate Vera Baird sent to a member of
the public who asked her a simple question about whether those who burn poppies
should be arrested.
Vera Baird’s reply – “Who’s
asking?” – is revealing in a number of ways. It displays a suspicion of the
public she intends to serve. It displays an unwillingness to divulge information
to the people whose Council Tax she intends to hike up. Most seriously, it
demonstrates that for all of her talk about openness and improved
communication, Vera Baird remains at heart a New Labour political hack, with a
fundamental distrust of the people whose votes she is asking for. If this is
how Labour’s candidate treats the public, it’s no wonder that so many people
have complained about lack of information on their PCC candidates.
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