Olly Martins, Bedfordshire's Police and Crime Commissioner gave Bedfordshire's Finest (parish councillors) a good 90 minutes of his time last night at the Rufus Centre in Flitwick.
It was a useful conversation with someone in a role which is unprecedented and could play out in a variety of ways over the next four years.
Olly had first hand experience of attending a major policing event earlier this month with the Millwall-Luton FA Cup match. There were fears of a rerun of a 1985 meet up when a major riot broke out. It didn't happen this time.
He said it got ugly at one point but Luton and Bedfordshire avoided being in the national newspapers for the wrong reason. The force was able to borrow a mounted section from Thames Valley Police and Olly had no doubt that the police numbers allocated to the event were not overkill - they helped to preserve order. And, as he put it "Three quarters of a ton of lasagne meat came in useful".
Oh God, we can't get away from the horse jokes.
Like all PCCs he is running a police force facing or implementing 20 per cent budget cuts. Nevertheless he acknowledged that Beds Police had been cutting recorded crime by twice the national average in the last two years. But he is worried about losing police officers although PCSO posts have been preserved due to a small increase in the recently approved precept and budget.
A big theme of the commissioner is enhanced victim support reflecting a long professional engagement he had with the charity in previous years. He says he wants to talk directly to victims of crime and PCCs should be championing them.
He wants compulsory tagging and more public involvement with policing, street watch, neighbourhood watch, truck watch and volunteering. The latter is a worthwhile aspiration but the stock of available volunteer motivation is thin in some communities. That is not a reason to give up however.
If you want to contact the office of the police and crime commissioner visit http://policecrimecommissioner.co.uk/Bedfordshire
It was a useful conversation with someone in a role which is unprecedented and could play out in a variety of ways over the next four years.
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| Beds police - holding the line in Luton |
Olly had first hand experience of attending a major policing event earlier this month with the Millwall-Luton FA Cup match. There were fears of a rerun of a 1985 meet up when a major riot broke out. It didn't happen this time.
He said it got ugly at one point but Luton and Bedfordshire avoided being in the national newspapers for the wrong reason. The force was able to borrow a mounted section from Thames Valley Police and Olly had no doubt that the police numbers allocated to the event were not overkill - they helped to preserve order. And, as he put it "Three quarters of a ton of lasagne meat came in useful".
Oh God, we can't get away from the horse jokes.
Like all PCCs he is running a police force facing or implementing 20 per cent budget cuts. Nevertheless he acknowledged that Beds Police had been cutting recorded crime by twice the national average in the last two years. But he is worried about losing police officers although PCSO posts have been preserved due to a small increase in the recently approved precept and budget.
A big theme of the commissioner is enhanced victim support reflecting a long professional engagement he had with the charity in previous years. He says he wants to talk directly to victims of crime and PCCs should be championing them.
He wants compulsory tagging and more public involvement with policing, street watch, neighbourhood watch, truck watch and volunteering. The latter is a worthwhile aspiration but the stock of available volunteer motivation is thin in some communities. That is not a reason to give up however.
If you want to contact the office of the police and crime commissioner visit http://policecrimecommissioner.co.uk/Bedfordshire
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