Wildlife crime

If I am elected to be the Police and Crime Commissioner, my intention is to do my best to gather the views of local communities, including minority communities, and channel these towards to police such that the setting of police priorities and policies are aligned with preferences of local communities, respecting also differences between different parts of the Northumbria Police area. I do not intend to use my personal or party political preferences to set particular policing priorities or policies beyond my general commitment to democratic transparency and responsiveness to community needs. 

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.