Police and Crime Commissioner - the candidates for Worcestershire

3:00pm Friday 9th November 2012 in News By Tom Edwards

Police and Crime Commissioner - the candidates Police and Crime Commissioner - the candidates

Adrian Blackshaw

Adrian Blackshaw

FORMER army officer Adrian Blackshaw says he wants to see more people in Worcestershire volunteer to help cut crime.

He is the Conservative candidate and he says he wants to unlock community spirit.

Mr Blackshaw, who is a county councillor at Herefordshire Council, has produced a “five-point plan” which he is hoping will bring in votes.

It includes:

  • Police will need to hold more meetings in the community so they can be “held to account”
  • Get officers away from their desks more often and onto the streets
  • To encourage more voluntary policing by maintaining current levels of PCSOs and asking more people to become special constables
  • To ensure all police funding is fairly distributed across West Mercia
  • To listen to victims of crime and make sure they are a priority

His manifesto also says he wants residents to get more involved in community safety so they act as the eyes and ears of bobbies.

Mr Blackshaw, who is now a commercial organic farmer in Canon Pyon, Herefordshire, has done three tours of Northern Island with the army and believes he is ideally suited to the role.

He said: “I shall set one objective – to cut crime.

“Police officers should be on the streets, not behind desks.

“I will place local policing as my top priority and will do my utmost to support current levels of police community support officers.

“I will encourage more voluntary policing and community involvement in public safety.

“I will ensure police and partner agencies safeguard, support and protect vulnerable people in our communities and treat victims of crime as people, not just a number.”

He also says he has been told “too many crimes are not investigated” and will make sure the public are not fobbed off when they have concerns.

 

Bill Longmore

Bill Longmore

RETIRED police officer Bill Longmore says running a force with “national standards of excellence” should be what this region aims for.
Mr Longmore, who lives in Shrewsbury, also says he wants police to link up better with voluntary groups across the West Mercia force area.
The former PC, who ran his own multi-million timber business after retiring from the beat, is the only independent candidate in next week’s police and crime commissioner elections.
His manifesto pledges to look at new ideas for the rehabilitation of criminals, suggesting the current arrangement of unpaid work isn’t working as well as it might.
He also believes many offenders break the law because they are bored - and that new facilities to keep youngsters busy will go a long way to reducing anti-social behaviour.
He said: “I had a distinguished career as a police officer and much experience of policing.
“I strongly believe politics has no place in policing and I am the only candidate with no affiliation to any party.”
His manifesto includes pledges to:

  • Represent people’s voices about how to tackle crime
  • Develop new partnership opportunities (with community organisations and voluntary bodies) so police have more regular dialogue with the public
  • Look at the current rehabilitation system and improve it
  • Engage far better with young people via the use of public meetings and surgeries

“If elected I will not be a faceless person who sits in an office.
“My intention is to spend as much time as possible in communities working with, and speaking with people to find out their true views about policing and how we can effectively prevent crime and disorder together.”
He has also announced that he will give away £20,000 of the £75,000-a-year salary that comes with the role if elected.
Mr Longmore, who spent more than 30 years at Staffordshire Police before retiring in 1986, said the cash would be placed into a fund to help victims of crime.

 

Simon Murphy

Simon Murphy

STARTING “a war on drugs in Worcester” and cracking down on speeding are just two of the priorities for a would-be police and crime commissioner.
This is the view of Simon Murphy, who is Labour’s candidate for next week’s count, He insists that he would also make sure more police officers are put back on the beat.
Extra traffic calming measures, sending officers into schools to do talks on drugs and moving around CCTV so they focus more on
troublesome areas are three
other emerging policies in his manifesto.
Dr Murphy, a former West Midlands MEP who now does a range of consultancy work for public and private bodies, says his “main priority” is getting a more visible police presence.
His manifesto also includes a pledge to appoint a “victim’s champion” who can work with those who suffer crimes to see what they thought of the police response.
If elected, he will also appoint a non-political deputy commissioner, who will be tasked with “warning” him if he steps out of line.
His priorities include:

  • More police on the beat by diverting funding into front-line roles
  • Cracking down on anti-social behaviour using CCTV better
  • Tackling speeding via extra traffic calming and more funding for new cameras
  • Starting a war on drugs in Worcester

Dr Murphy, who lives in Claines in Worcester, said: “Speeding costs lives - I will crack down on boy racers, take action to catch those driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs or using mobile phones, and use speed cameras or traffic calming measures.”
He also intends to offer new training to police so offences like hate crimes, domestic abuse and sexual violence are spotted earlier.
When it comes to his “war on drugs”, he is basing it on research revealing drugs offences across the West Mercia force area increased 14 per cent from March 2011 to March this year.
“Drugs destroy the lives of addicts and the lives of people around them,” he said.
“I will ensure funds are available to combat dealers and gangs, support drugs education in schools and provide support to help local people get off drugs.”
Whoever becomes the new commissioner will be responsible for setting the policing budget across the West Mercia force area.
They will also have to draw up a list of responsibilities for the chief constable which can be funded from that budget.

 

The election for West Mercia’s first ever £75,000-a-year police and crime commissioner takes place on Thursday, November 15.
Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin are all part of the force area.

  • In Tuesday's Worcester News reporter Tom Edwards will put your questions to the candidates.

Comments(47)

anarchist says...
4:01pm Fri 9 Nov 12

The local taxpayer cost for policing grew, on average, at five times the rate of inflation whilst Labour were in power - an overall threefold increase.

What I want to hear is what the new Commissioner will do differently on the financial front once since, if nothing is changed, we will see continued, excessive cost increases for policing across West Mercia.

The old mechanisms failed completely to protect local taxpayers from excessive demands - what will now change?

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Hwicce says...
5:44pm Fri 9 Nov 12

I'm not interested in people "holding meetings". That is just a euphemism for doing nothing.

What I want is a PCC who will kick the Police up the backside and get them out on the street nicking people who break the law. It's fairly simple really, I have a vote waiting for whoever thinks they can do it (or is that a bribe? :) )

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uptonX says...
7:45pm Fri 9 Nov 12

Thanks Worcester News, having not heard of any of these before and having now read the above Bill Longmore is the only one who makes any sense. He will get my vote and hopefully everyone elses. Pretty simple really, he's done the job, his views are pragmatic and sensible and most importantly, no political agenda.

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truth must out says...
8:39pm Fri 9 Nov 12

So the tory wants it all done for nothing i.e voluntary.....the labour bloke wants to wage a 'war on drugs' and boy racers..this is Worcester not New York.
Bill Longmore is streets ahead, knows what he is talking about.

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copierman says...
9:02pm Fri 9 Nov 12

As a postal voter I have had my voting form for over a week. This is the first time I have seen any information about the three candidates. I note we have a Conservative a Labour and a Independent candidate, the first two will probably follow their respective party line.
I remember what the Independent candidate did for Wyre Forest in the Government elections when he got in and stopped the closure of Kidderminster Hospital.
As we have two votes each I know where both mine will go.

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Frank Gannett says...
10:50pm Fri 9 Nov 12

I think that a truly independent PCC is a good thing, but that means no ex-police, no Tories, no Labour, no Lib-Dems, can you see where there is going?

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worcswolf says...
11:38pm Fri 9 Nov 12

Years ago you had a community bobby a bit like heartbeat and a seargeant who just Policed the local area. Years have gone on add more bureaucacy targets and weve got less Police on the streets and a red tape system tying up the Police. I just feel this is more jobs for the boys when really the Police should be left alone to Police. These commisioners might work in the USA but not here spend more time freeing up the Police to Police like they use to.

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140354 says...
8:49am Sat 10 Nov 12

So...

Simon Murphy wants to further punnish motorists... ie more speed cameras! (revenue raising schemes)

Adrian Blackshaw wants more voluntary policing... ie cheap police! (revenue saving schemes)

Bill Longmore says he will give away £20000 of his salary to help victims of crime... ie putting his money where his mouth is!

Bill gets my vote!

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Dr Simon Murphy says...
8:58am Sat 10 Nov 12

I agree with Worcswolf. By far and away the top priority that members of the public have told me is more visible policing by officers that they know. It was described to me by one as "PC Jane" a beat bobby who knew the streets of Stourport so well that everyone knew her by that name. If I am elected I will ensure that there are more local police officers, Community Officers and Special Constables on our streets.

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Andy_R says...
11:14am Sat 10 Nov 12

Many people hove no idea what the new police commissioner is supposed to do... sadly one of these people is Simon Murphy!

If Simon Murphy wants more traffic calming measures, surely he should be standing in the council elections not the police commissioner election?

It's the council that put these in, not the police... unless his for 'bobbies on the street' involves them digging up the streets too?

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Frank Gannett says...
11:47am Sat 10 Nov 12

Simon Murphy, why do you want to start a 'war on drugs in Worcester' when all over the world this shameful policy which is responsible for destroying millions of lives is unravelling?

Just look at the US where States are legalising cannabis for recreational use.

In Europe, cannabis has become decriminalised in many countries e.g. Spain, Czech Republic, Portugal Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands & Poland.

I think you're a bit behind the times Simon. I should imagine the police think so too.

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reflector says...
12:13pm Sat 10 Nov 12

I might just have voted for Bill Longmore had he not announced that he will give away £20,000 of his salary, which to me is just a pathetic gimmick or stunt designed to win votes for entirely the wrong reason.

As it is, with a heavy heart, this is the first election in almost 50 years in which I will not be casting my vote. The whole notion of giving one person this kind of control over policing is actually highly dangerous and something that should not have been introduced without at least trying it out on a pilot basis to see how it works in practice. It's a crackpot idea to change something which up to now seems to have worked reasonably well.

I am wholly against political interference in our police force and although in theory, it sounds democratic, in practice the wrong person in this role could do an enormous amount of damage before we get the opportunity to send them packing at the next election.

None of the candidates impress me enough to change my mind and my refusal to vote is the only way I can register my disdain for the whole process.

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Frank13 says...
3:05pm Sat 10 Nov 12

Using 'volunteers' I assume refers to Special Constables (sworn officers with power of arrest), the numbers of whom have fallen by half since 2000- while we now have 270 Community Support Officers with virtually no powers.

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square1 says...
4:24pm Sat 10 Nov 12

Well where should i start. I have a close friend who's a police officer and he and many other fellow officers think the PCC's are a waste of time and money. They don't / didn't even know who were standing and what they stood for.

After speaking with my friend it goes to show that the public and even the standing PCC's havent got a clue about policing and what actually goes on.

It isn't as easy as saying 'I will put more officers on the street '' or '' I will make sure they get out from behind there desks ''

The thing is society it self is at an all time low, my mate says, he's just Jeremy Kyle in a police uniform. He would like nothing better than to be out catching a burglar , a car thief , or a drug dealer but having a chance would be a fine thing.

He doesn't like sitting behind a desk and filling in forms he'd like to be out on the street, they all would but they have nothing but more and more paperwork to fill in all the time. He calls it arse covering alot of the time and extra forms come in due to some thing else that has happened following an IPCC investigation in another force.

He gave me a couple of examples once of how his shift can pan out from going out from domestic to domestic over stupid arguments that couples are so imature they can't even resolve a small row (over a TV remote) but have to call the police to sort it , to going to couples beating each other up, or neighours falling out and threatening each other often over facebook.
In between that he's expected to catch all these drug dealers and thieves.

He told me one he started a shift at 7am was at a domestic incident by 8.30am. The one party was arrested and was taken to custody, in custody the person faked that he was having a heart attack and had to be taken to hospital, once back from hospital he wanted a solicitor and that was gone 12. By the time he interviewed the person is was 2 - 3pm, and was supposed to be off duty at 4pm. After the interview he had to put a pile of paperwork together for the CPS for them to make a desision in between all that he had to sort out a thing called a DVPO (he explained it to me but i've forgetten) and also the other party retracted her statement. He finished work at 8pm, 4 HOURS after he was due off.

Where is the sense in all that and people wonder why at times some officers are some times a little miserable, my mate is often off late not being able to see his kids ect, and that would wind me up.

You've got a standing PCC saying he will put more ''volunteers '' out. What ever form this takes an officer is still going to have some sort of invovlement.
A special Constable only has to do like 4 hours a week. Yes they can arrest people but my mates pointed out to me they can't do much else. They have minimal training, and once they've done their hours they can go home. On top of that they can't take statements or interview people and the stuff they do deal with always gets handed over to a regular officer to sort out anyway, upping their work load.
It might givre the impression there are more officers about but it's papering over the cracks.

Its easy for a PCC to say they will taregt a certain area of crime but there is still everything else going on around.

Any of these standing PCC's will have a shock when they get in at what its really all about, i couldn't do the job my mate does he gets verbally abused and assaulted far to often.

I'm not voting for anyone because at the end of the day it is a waste of money to employ a PCC

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taffyboio says...
5:42pm Sat 10 Nov 12

As Dr Simon MURPHY has commented on this thread already it suggets that he is keeping an eye on this thread, maybe he would like to comment on SQAURE 1's friends day. Dr MURPHY please could you tell us how you plan to reduce the amount of time that the friend of SQAURE1 spends in the police station allowing him and the other officers to be on the beat? Because if you cannot do it for this one officer then you wil not be able to do it for any. It sounds like this is a normal working day -arrest followed by form filling and process completion. Good luck with trying to sort it out, if you can sort it you will get my vote. Dr MURPHY I dont think you can and you will break your promises even before you have been elected- because you make sweeping statements "MORE POLICE ON THE BEAT" without knowing what is stopping them being on the beat. All the candidates are ignorant of this!

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anarchist says...
8:13pm Sat 10 Nov 12

It is a bit sad when all we hear is that people want more police 'plodding the streets' when there is so much more to modern policing than this.

There needs to be a careful balance between the resources deployed on the front line and those deployed on the back room jobs of forensics, intelligence collection, analysis, detection and prosecution.

More police on the beat is no doubt a reaction the sort of crime that most people experience but a significant amount of crime is committed by well organised criminal gangs and this won't be countered simply by having more police plodding the streets.

But, sadly, from the comments here and elsewhere it is only too obvious that few of those who will be voting have any idea what modern policing requires so we just have to hope that whoever is elected will not simply react to what they hear from the public.

It is also important to remember that policing costs follow crime levels, not vice versa, so I, for one, want to live in an area where policing costs are lower than elsewhere because crime is also inherently lower.

The West Mercia Police Authority didn't even attempt to keep policing costs under control and were no more than a compliant and uncritical servant of the West Mercia Constabulary on all financing issues. It remains to be seen if the PCC will be able to do any better.

But one thing is certain - adopting the current financial arrangements as if they are working is never going to provide effective or efficient policing

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Malaky says...
9:01pm Sat 10 Nov 12

There is not a UKIP candidate in our area, and so my vote will go to Bill Longmore, an Independant.

Longmore's manifesto has been outlined in one of the early posts above, so I will not repeat it her. However, itis the closest to what I believe should be the aims of the new Police supremo, and I would recommend tghat others look closely at what he is proposing.

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jb says...
11:23pm Sat 10 Nov 12

I do not agree in any way with this ridiculous gimmicky, Americanised system. We have a Chief Constable who should be in charge of policing our force area. How is it in any way feasible to put someone in charge of a police force who has no realistic experience of what the job is, what is needed on the streets and who probably needs experienced police 'advisors' to assist them anyway. False economy and far too much politics involved.

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imustbeoldiwearacap says...
8:44am Sun 11 Nov 12

What is more worrying about this "election" is the probability that whoever "wins" will have done so on the lowest turnout of any election in recent history! Of course one of the "official" candidates of either Conservative or Labour will get in, and no matter how much the candidates say they will be non-partisan somehow I don't believe them! And although the full salary to be paid is £75,000, the actual cost to the police budget will be nearer £250,000! Yet another useless layer of bureaucracy!

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Guy66 says...
2:30pm Sun 11 Nov 12

I'm abstaining my vote for the PCC's. It's just so clearly a waste of time and effort, jobs for the boys and a method of placing politic influence above the Police. However, if I were 'forced' to vote and based purely on the write ups of each candidate then the Labour chap would get it - and I hate Labour! The gimmick of giving £20,000 away is just that a gimick -take £75K remove tax, national insurance, medical and other benefits and he'll be in no position to hand over £20k.

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uptonX says...
4:00pm Sun 11 Nov 12

Like any "manifesto" people can pick out good and bad but what really matters on policing is having someone in charge who can make the right decisions for the right reasons. As such someone who has been a police offier before earns them a big tick but what really swings it for me is they are non political. Can you imagine what a nightmare a Labour supporting/sponsored police leader would be, every problem would be down to "the cuts" or "class war" and decisions would then be made for the wrong reasons - that's the very last thing we need.

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Grumbleweed Connection says...
5:24pm Sun 11 Nov 12

The whole exercise is a total waste of public money. The roles will simply undermine the Chief Constables and detract from their autonomy. Another expensive and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy is being created at a time when we cannot afford it. Political statements and ridiculous promises of giving money back will not persuade me to vote, and my voting papers have been shredded already. I suspect eighty percent of the electorate will have similar opinions.

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DAVID1875 says...
7:41pm Sun 11 Nov 12

Anything has got to be better than the incompetent and arrogant police authority who would always back up the police no matter what,instead of actually doing what they were paid to do, hold the police to account ON BEHALF OF THE PUBLIC.And the 17 members of the police authority were paid a total of £340,000 per year in "allowances", plus we had the chief executive and his deputy costing the taxpayer another £150,000 per year.And they could not have been less interested in the views of the public! If the candidates appear to be focusing on front-line policing as a priority, perhaps they can explain why my local policing team at Hagley is keeping it's 2 useless and powerless CSOs whilst NOT replacing its local policing officer who is retiring, thus leaving 11000 residents across 4 villages with no local police constable for the first time in its history!

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Malaky says...
10:46pm Sun 11 Nov 12

Grumbleweed Connection wrote:
The whole exercise is a total waste of public money. The roles will simply undermine the Chief Constables and detract from their autonomy. Another expensive and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy is being created at a time when we cannot afford it. Political statements and ridiculous promises of giving money back will not persuade me to vote, and my voting papers have been shredded already. I suspect eighty percent of the electorate will have similar opinions.
But the Chief Constables have no credible connection with the rest of humanity!

They are a rule to themselves, and that is where ythe problem lies!

Vote for somone who has to account to the public for the behaviour of their Chief Constables and we have a little bit of democracy creeping into a dark area, where most people prefer not to go!

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laidback says...
7:31am Mon 12 Nov 12

The anti-motorist candidate needs to aquaint himself with the causes of road accidents before parroting calls for even more scameras; a New Labour revenue raising ruse promoted by the most authoritarian UK administration since the Second World War.

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SMC73 says...
9:01am Mon 12 Nov 12

Bill Longmore. It's a no-brainer. Political allegiance/bias should not cloud good, honest and clear common sense.

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SMC73 says...
9:05am Mon 12 Nov 12

I've already voted by post and it wasn't clear as to whether you HAD to cast two votes...apparently you don't.

Begrudgingly I therefore made a second choice as I didn't want to risk my primary vote not being counted.

YOU ONLY NEED TO CHOOSE ONE CANDIDATE.

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brooksider says...
9:51am Mon 12 Nov 12

Guy66 wrote:
I'm abstaining my vote for the PCC's. It's just so clearly a waste of time and effort, jobs for the boys and a method of placing politic influence above the Police. However, if I were 'forced' to vote and based purely on the write ups of each candidate then the Labour chap would get it - and I hate Labour! The gimmick of giving £20,000 away is just that a gimick -take £75K remove tax, national insurance, medical and other benefits and he'll be in no position to hand over £20k.
Of course he can afford it, he is receiving a Police pension.

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oldwusterboy says...
1:05pm Mon 12 Nov 12

reflector wrote:
I might just have voted for Bill Longmore had he not announced that he will give away £20,000 of his salary, which to me is just a pathetic gimmick or stunt designed to win votes for entirely the wrong reason.

As it is, with a heavy heart, this is the first election in almost 50 years in which I will not be casting my vote. The whole notion of giving one person this kind of control over policing is actually highly dangerous and something that should not have been introduced without at least trying it out on a pilot basis to see how it works in practice. It's a crackpot idea to change something which up to now seems to have worked reasonably well.

I am wholly against political interference in our police force and although in theory, it sounds democratic, in practice the wrong person in this role could do an enormous amount of damage before we get the opportunity to send them packing at the next election.

None of the candidates impress me enough to change my mind and my refusal to vote is the only way I can register my disdain for the whole process.
couldnt agree more, totally agree with all your coments reflector

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pronstar says...
1:07pm Mon 12 Nov 12

brooksider wrote:
Guy66 wrote:
I'm abstaining my vote for the PCC's. It's just so clearly a waste of time and effort, jobs for the boys and a method of placing politic influence above the Police. However, if I were 'forced' to vote and based purely on the write ups of each candidate then the Labour chap would get it - and I hate Labour! The gimmick of giving £20,000 away is just that a gimick -take £75K remove tax, national insurance, medical and other benefits and he'll be in no position to hand over £20k.
Of course he can afford it, he is receiving a Police pension.
Very good point, although I note that he doesn't actually say who or what he will give the £20,000 to.

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MJI says...
10:12am Tue 13 Nov 12

There are 2 I like the sound of, as a motorist 1 is instantly discounted, just need to decide between the other 2.

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mayall8808 says...
10:33am Tue 13 Nov 12

I was at the candidates meeting last night, Its £120,000 a year and all of them will appoint a deputy, why do we need another taxpayers waste of money?

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mayall8808 says...
10:53am Tue 13 Nov 12

I was at the candidates meeting last night, Its £120,000 a year and all of them will appoint a deputy, why do we need another taxpayers waste of money?

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Duke30 says...
10:56am Tue 13 Nov 12

To add to what square 1 has already touched on.

My son is a police officer and often tells me of his frustrations surrounding red tape.

Of course all police officers join the job to catch "The bad guys". Yet my son feels he is restricted and that the job is more about covering your backside.

He tells me that he spends 90% of his time going to incidents involving the same people, most of which for things that really should not be considered a police matter. Examples being neighbours swearing at each other due to a dispute over their hedge height or abuse over Facebook.
Yet through fear of recieving complaints these are the things that police spend the majority of their time with leaving the real victims of crime feeling underwhelmed.

My son goes from incident to incident to incident leaving him with minimal time to investigate the crimes he has attended.

With the drastic cuts to West Mercias budget (and more to follow) I would like to see where these extra officers are going to appear from! It is all good and well making sweeping statements but where is plan to back it up? The police who were back room and able to return to the frontline already have and yet the frontline is still over stretched.

If the public knew how few police there actually were covering an area they would be amazed. Special constables are no replacement, as already mentioned they can arrest but all other parts of the incident will be left to a full officer. It is very much a false economy.

The police do still want to catch the bad guys and I believe are still doing a fantastic job. However with the government cuts crime will only get worse and more and more people will become victims. The additional money sunk into this farce should have been given to recruit more officers.

A firmer stance on what police should be attending and additional officers are the only way to sort it out

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uncivil says...
1:23pm Tue 13 Nov 12

The problem is numbers. We need more police on the streets not some elected quango telling officers to come out from desks. Leave the police to be run by officers with experience and not by business ethics

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mr_wilson15 says...
2:46pm Tue 13 Nov 12

The only fair way to vote is to ask any police employees who they'd prefer to see in the job, and why, and then vote accordingly. After all, it's them who'll be most affected.

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mr_wilson15 says...
2:47pm Tue 13 Nov 12

And since I don't know any police employees, I shalln't be voting.

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anarchist says...
8:46am Wed 14 Nov 12

Duke30 seems to think that West Mercia Constabulary (WMC) is subject to 'drastic cuts' but local taxpayers saw policing costs in West Mercia rise by a factor of over three while Labour was in power so even after the current cuts, the WMC will still be seriously over funded when compared with other forces across England and Wales.

Moreover, between 2003 and 2007, WMC's management staff costs grew at a staggering 30% per annum. This was money that was effectively taken away for the front line to sustain a bloated senior management created by Paul West.

And the completely useless West Mercia Police Authority didn't even notice this as it was too busy cosying up to the WMC whilst it was happening.

If the elected PCC does no more than establish effective _independent_ financial oversight and control of the WMC budget, his salary will have been money well spent.

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MJI says...
9:43am Wed 14 Nov 12

How did they afford their new road at Hindlip?
.
When I saw it under construction I thought it was a new business park.
.
Waste of money.

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Give Up! says...
11:35am Wed 14 Nov 12

Has nobody noticed the benefits of declaring yourself as an independent candidate to gain votes in these elections yet?? In parliament the idea of being an independent means there is no party whip to make you vote in line with party policy and as such you can fight for your own morals. There is no voting procedure for these candidates, once elected they are autonomous from their party but still answerable to the Home Offices policies, their decisions can be changed, altered and ignored by central government if against the strict rules already laid down. One of these rules is that forces must seek out alliances with other forces, take West Mercia and Warks for example. The alliance is almost complete yet there are to be 2 commisioners, 2 deputies and each will have their own finance directors. These salaries alone would provide additional police resources. The independent candidates must have voted in previous local and general elections as they demonstrate a clear interest in politics by applying for this role, they must therefore have political allegiance somewhere. Lets not be fooled by the term independent, it just means they could afford the £5000 deposit themselves. It may have been fair, as with local mayors to ask the publics opinion in the creation of the roles. At the moment its like raising the cost of road tax and asking people to vote for if they wish to pay in Pounds or Euros?? Its happening whether you like it or not but we thought you should have some choice!!

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Give Up! says...
11:44am Wed 14 Nov 12

One last thing while on my soap box.... an interesting comment was made in a local paper in the home counties, in a Tory stronghold. I quote;
In this country the "spoilt votes" have to be counted and publically announced. If the number of spoilt votes containing the phrase "None of the above" were to exceed the rest does that remove their mandate to be democratically elected??

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dulon says...
11:59am Wed 14 Nov 12

Only one of these 3 candidates appears to have a background of being in commercial employment. The institutionized other pair have had careers in the military and politics. Hardly the background of real world economics that we are all in. MEP pensions and ex army pensions are things that are wrapped in gold . Dont forget Mandelsons pension when he left strasbourg ! Realistically there is only one for me !

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murray kelso says...
12:03pm Wed 14 Nov 12

If readers haven't spotted it yet, we're now hosting a live Q&A session with the candidates here http://www.worcester
news.co.uk/news/worc
ester/10046503.PCC_Q
_A___your_questions_
answered/
Get your questions in below that article and put them to the test.

MK - Digital Editor

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Stevie-P says...
4:16pm Wed 14 Nov 12

I was wondering just how much do these new BMW Police Cars cost? Would it not be better to fund a 24/7 helicopter crew instead of this wasteful luxury car outgoings?

No I won't be voting either like all the politicians they say one thing to get into office and then turn the heating up, put the slippers on and forget what they are promising to do once inside the door. I note the independent candidate is willing to give away £20K of his salary, no brainer when you own a mult-million timber company is it, also I think policing and crime has moved on since he was an officer back in the 80's. A crack down on drugs and speeding, oh dear MR Labour wake up the world has moved on from the cash cow milking speeding policy yes speeding kills hardly a Nr. 1 priority though is it? As others have said marijuana is legal pretty much in most countries now and no matter how much £££ you throw at it you will never win, now if we legalized it and taxed it for sale maybe some of that revenue could be used to pay for the lovely BMW's. MR. Tory as always something for nothing, how about a snoops behind the curtain force, they don't cost anything and yes more pretend police officers CSO's Oh dear people just ignore them and laugh in their faces great idea in theory in practice a joke a tiger with no teeth. Fact is you are all out of touch with reality, sorry I don't have any solutions either, I wish I had but wasting more money on a post like this is simply what it is another GIMMICK imported from the USA, oh maybe we could also get batman & Robin to come and help the commissioner help fight the crime too or is that not in the manifestos? Now my rant is over!!

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MJI says...
4:42pm Wed 14 Nov 12

dulon wrote:
Only one of these 3 candidates appears to have a background of being in commercial employment. The institutionized other pair have had careers in the military and politics. Hardly the background of real world economics that we are all in. MEP pensions and ex army pensions are things that are wrapped in gold . Dont forget Mandelsons pension when he left strasbourg ! Realistically there is only one for me !
Only the retired Policeman by the look of it, others are counciler and MEP.

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lisagreatbatch says...
9:16pm Wed 14 Nov 12

Thanks Worcester News for the only info I have been able to find about the candidates. I will now vote after all. Without any info I felt unable to vote.

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DAVID1875 says...
7:03am Fri 16 Nov 12

Well said anarchist! Senior police within West Mercia are more interested in their careers and box ticking to produce 50 page strategies and plans to curry favour with the Home Office, then they forget or cannot be bothered to make sure their frontline officers actually deal with local crime! Senior officers including the Chief Constable accept tens of thousands of pounds per year in "additional payments" at the same time as cutting frontline police posts.How about we abolish the unnecessary post of chief inspector(cannot inspectors be trusted to look after themselves?)and the useless CSOs and use that money to put some 250 or more proper officers on the frontline?

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