Caerphilly AM Jeff Cuthbert, who is standing down from the National Assembly in May next year, has said he intends to seek the Labour Party’s nomination for the Gwent Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) election.
Mr Cuthbert, who has been an Assembly Member since 2003, said: “I believe that the post of PCC is very much about building partnerships between the police service and the communities that they serve.
“These duties were very much part of my role when I was the Minister for Communities and Tackling Poverty. In particular I had a significant role in building trust and good relationships with vulnerable groups such as minority ethnic and religious communities and key public services including the police.
“Policing is not yet a devolved matter but the Welsh Government must be seen as a major partner given that the major public services such as health, housing, education and transport are devolved.”
Former councillor Darren Jones, from Blackwood, has been chosen by Plaid Cymru as their candidate for the PCC election, which takes place on the same day as the Assembly election in May next year.
Married with two sons, Mr Jones is a Cluster Manager for the lower Cynon Valley within the Communities First Tackling Poverty programme.
He was a Caerphilly county councillor between 1998 and 2004 and was the youngest Cabinet member in Wales in 1999 when Plaid took control of the authority.
He said: “One of the things that should be looked into is a review of all Commissioner-assisted services to see what delivers and what doesn’t. Some of the schemes do not appear to be producing results.
“As a Community First cluster manager, I work with young people who are first-time offenders and I help them back into employment. If elected as Police Commissioner, I’m looking at introducing schemes that help people back into employment as a means of tackling the causes of crime.”
The role of a Police and Crime Commissioner is to oversee their police force in terms of strategy and finance – they effectively set the direction and budget for Chief Constables.
The current PCC for Gwent, ex-police officer Ian Johnston, has not yet indicated if he will stand for a second time.
Mr Johnston, who was elected as an independent candidate, has previously clashed with Mr Cuthbert and Labour MPs Wayne David and Chris Evans while in his role, with them being critical on how former Chief Constable Carmel Napier was “forced to retire”.
Mr Johnston has recently claimed that the Welsh Government had not accepted PCCs and that its attitude had “made life difficult”.
He told the BBC that Labour’s attitude to PCCs was “not helpful” and added: “It’s a really difficult job if the ministers aren’t engaging with you and are still engaging with chief constables.”
The Welsh Government said it worked closely with police and had developed a productive working relationships with commissioners.
I think Ian Johnston is right when he says that the Welsh Assembly has not yet accepted Police Commissioners. I also think that he has done a reasonably good job in difficult circumstances.I did not vote for him, I voted Chris Wright, but would sooner vote for him than anybody from either Labour or Plaid. The last thing we need is a politically motivated police force.
Actually Richard what we need is a Police Commissioner who is first and foremost completely INDEPENDENT of the Police Force he or she oversees. I notice that some of the first definitive deisions made by the current Commissioner, but not in this order, was; One, To take steps to remove the Chief Constable, ( and the public have never really been given the full reasons for that highly critical decision). We were all told that “he could not work with her” the public are left wondering “who`s fault was that”. the process cost the Gwent Ratepayers a small fortune
Two; He promoted the appointment of a former police colleague he had previously worked with, as his highly paid `Deputy`, although it was Gwent Councillors who `appointed`him. The `scrutiny confirmation meeting` which confirmed the appointment asked the candidate a number of questions, one of which was,
“How would you propose the Commissioner ensures that the Public and Gwent Police engagement and consultation process work?” He said, that “all such `consultation` with the public should be conducted through Elected Councillors, who, he said, “are the people with thier ear to the ground in communities they serve”, This was almost exactly the answer the Commissioner had previously given when asked the same question in his election campaign. And this is the way the Commissioner largely engages, regularly, “with the public” he meets Councillors on a regular basis, at briefing meetings, which, sidestep the public he serves.
Three, following on from two above, He set about largely dismantling the former PACT ( Police and Communiies Together) meetings to which all members of the public could attend and replaced them with meetings to which selected members of the public attend, and, guess what, these attendances are prodominantly made up of “Councillors”.
So is it time for a fresh appoach?, new ideas for police and residents engagement in Gwent?, and for someone to be elected who will truely put members of the public at the real centre of their activities, and redress the imbalance created over the last four years or so?.
A fresh approach is one thing, party politicians is another matter entirely.
You are right about PACT, there should be a meeting where the police meet the public. Unfortunately this process failed, at least in my ward of St. Martin’s, because the public eventually saw it as controlled by councillors.
This is not what a public meeting should be about, if councillors attend they should do so as residents. We meet with the police every month in our capacity as councilors and should not intrude on a meeting for the public to speak with senior police face to face.
Confirming on course Rich that the current Commissioner has developed a consultation process with local Councillors and not with the public.
The fact that the PACT meetings in St Martins ward were not well attended was not simply because they became “councillor led Events”, although you are partly correct, The Death nell for this process and the main reason and at which point the residents stopped attending these meetings was a meeting at which a local Police Chief Officer told residents that he would not be questioned by them on the way he policed to town, when, the entire purpose of PACT was for the Police to engage with the residents and as a forum for debate on policing and partnership issues. The fact these forums were dismantled has allowed `power of information and policing processes and priorities` to rest completely with Councillors and the Police taking the public out of he loop.