Deterrents are key issue
| Published date | 22 May 2021 |
RE the Gazette article of 20.05.21 "New PCC spells out his priorities for tackling crime".
The dad-of-three, who was previously chief of staff to Conservative MPs Simon Clarke and Jacob Young, has now begun a three-year term in the post which involves providing strategic objectives for Cleveland Police, setting the police precept and allocating funding for various areas of police work.
Local Democracy Reporter Stuart Arnold caught up with the new PCC during his first week in the job to ask his views on a number of policing related issues.
¦ Police finances "It has been a strange year with Covid and most forces will probably see a slight increase in their [cash] reserves.
"There will be some things as we come out of Covid that will need to be reviewed and looked at.
"But sitting down with our chief finance officer, he has assured me that we will come in for this year with an underspend which does give us some room for manoeuvre moving forward.
New out for "In terms of the PCC we have an outreach fund [for grants] and we will be looking for local business partners to come on board with that. We need to view what our communities are doing and what they need, and work in partnership with perhaps some of the larger businesses out there to see what they can do to support us."
good and I want to improve and make it two, three, bigger than it already is.
"I have some time diaried spend some time with over in Hartlepool to see the job they do.
¦ Violent crime "Violent crime across the force area is horrendous. We have gone up nearly 30% on last year, and we have gone from the seventh worst force in the country for knife crime to the third worst.
"Violent crime generally is through the roof and particularly in Middlesbrough where it is 50% higher than the force average.
"I talked to some of leaders before the election ways we can reward these and encourage recruitment. "One of the things I to our councils is a council reduction for special constables. "It would be a reward who do a fantastic - it takes a special to be a special constable - would hopefully aid recruitment as well.
Whilst on paper, our new PCC Mr Turner sounds positive about working with the Chief Constable and other agencies on ways to cut crime. However I still think that he is missing the point and his actions will just be kicking the can down the road.
"We are going to create a serious violence reduction unit and look to fund that because it is desperately needed. It is something that I...
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