Priorities

Policing and Crime

My Pledges:

• More police focusing on safer streets and tackling violence.
• Ensure police are on the beat rather than behind desks.
• Fight the causes of crime by ensuring provision of preventative services.
• Tougher sentences for rape and domestic violence.
• A new law to ensure victims are at the heart of the criminal justice system.
• I have always served the public with integrity and rectitude and promise to do the same as your PCC.

View My Pledges in Full

Tory record of failure

The Tories cut the police to the bone while claiming this had nothing to do with rising crime. Now they attempt to frame themselves as a party of law and order but on their watch, crime has risen across the country, while fewer criminals are brought to justice.

The Tories slashed billions from the police, taking officers numbers to their lowest level in generation.

• By 2018, police forces had seen their budgets cuts by around 30%. Despite claims of extra investment, there is still a £1.6bn real-terms gap in funding compared to when the Tories took office.
• And even after recent recruitment, there are still 11,267 fewer officers, 7,800 fewer PCSOs, and 8,864 fewer police staff than in 2010.

On the Tories’ watch, crime has soared while fewer criminals are being brought to justice.

• Nationally, recorded crime began to rise in 2014, yet the Tories continued to cut funding for years after, claiming the number of police was not important, just how they were deployed.
• In 2019-20, recorded crime reached its highest level on record at 6.1m offences, while violence was up nationwide with over 1m more offences than 2010.
• Despite the police recording more crimes, in the past year charge rates have fallen to a record low of 7%, while for two in five crimes no suspect is identified at all.
• In the year-ending September 2020, violence against the person reached 1.79m offences – its highest level since comparative records began in 2002-03 and equivalent to 4,900 violent crimes a day.
• Despite a fall during the first lockdown, violent crime had already exceeded levels of the previous year by the summer, up 9% between July and September 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.
• Knife crime reached its highest level on record in 2019-20 at over 50,090 offences, having almost doubled since 2013-14 where there were 25,588 offences. While the effects of lockdown saw a modest fall in the year-ending September 2020, there were still 47,119 offences – an average of 120 knife crimes a day.
• Violent crime has increased in every police force in the country since the Tories came to power. In four fifths of forces (35 out of 43), including West Mercia, violent crime has at least doubled since 2010.

Tory policies have pushed vulnerable young people it other arms of ruthless drug dealers.

• County lines drug dealing has been a major driver of serious violence across the country over the last decade.
• Under the Tories, increasing numbers of young people in the care system have been housed in unsuitable accommodation and faced being exploited and groomed into joining county lines gangs.
• More people are using the Class A drugs that drive county lines, but the Government did not spot the changing trends in time and a review by the Home Office found that spending on drug misuse treatment “reduced significantly because Local Government budgets have been squeezed and central Government funding and oversight has fallen away.”

The Tories have broken every promise they’ve made on policing and crime – you cannot trust a word they say on law and order.

• They said cuts would not affect the frontline, but nearly all officers lost were from the frontline.
• They said neighbourhood policing was under no threat, only for thousands to be lost from our communities.
• They said cuts to the police had no effect on crime rise, but their own research told them otherwise.
• They said they would make criminals feel fear but charge rates are so low it never been a better time to be a criminal.
• And their pledge on recruitment is the biggest con of all – less officers promised than were cut, half of police forces will still have less than in 2010, and nothing to address the shortfall in PCSOs and police staff.

About Me:

I am an experienced politician and have served on the West Mercia Police Authority. I was the chair of the Telford and Wrekin Policing Board before becoming the leader of the Telford and Wrekin Council.

I have been involved in community services in Telford before becoming a Councillor and have helped to secure a funding of £210k from European Urban Grant for Telford Cultural and Leisure Centre and then helped to raised £100k from the local community to complete the project.

In 2009, I was was asked to be on the Board of Governor of the University of Wolverhampton and served nine years term as an Independent Governor and was chair of the Audit committee.

During my term as leader of the Telford and Wrekin council from 2011 to 2016:

• I helped to stop the closure of Donnington M.O.D. site in Telford, thus saving hundreds of jobs and creating hundreds more.
• every secondary school in Telford and Wrekin was rebuilt or refurbished.
• introduced a policy to build houses on the council owned brownfield sites.
• help build a solar farm on the council owned land to bring in extra revenue.
• sanction the building of a leisure and retail complex in Telford town centre, known as the Southwater, thus creating hundreds of jobs.