The two main political parties have both chosen multi-stage processes to select their Police and Crime Commissioner candidates.

The Conservatives have gone for a centralised verification process. Candidates apply, are interviewed (I’m not yet clear whether all are interviewed or just a proportion), and a Candidates Committee verifies their suitability, whereupon their names are passed to local areas, who get to choose how they narrow down to a final candidate. More on that another time, mostly because that is when it will get interesting, but also because no actual decisions appear to have been made yet, and so no-one is complaining about any decisions that have gone wrong.

For Labour however, it’s a different kettle of smelly fish bits.

Labour have centralised applications, which are longlisted nationally, and the longlist is interviewed regionally, with the competing candidates in the emerging shortlist then going head to head on a party member postal ballot – or at least that is how it has been...

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Jas Parmar is seeking the Conservative nomination to be the Police and Crime Commissioner in Bedfordshire. If you are intending to stand to be Police and Crime Commissioner where you live, you can submit your own Candidate Statement, so get in touch at [email protected] – Others are on the way, and we are looking for 400 words, a photo (of you!) that you have rights to, and preferably an imprint, which will be needed for the formal election period later this year.

Jasbir (Jas) Parmar has announced his intention to stand for the position of Police and Crime Commissioner in Bedfordshire. Jas, is a former police officer who served for five years in the Met Police. He was elected to Bedford Borough Council in 2006 after defeating the Labour group leader and in the 2010 general election he stood as a candidate in Warley. He is involved in a number of local and national organisations and brings a wealth of experience in policing, business and public service.

He said,” I am putting myself forward because I bring a range of...

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Jon Harvey gives his personal perspective on the Blue Light Camp. Jon hopes to be the Labour candidate for Police and Crime Commissioner in the Thames Valley Police Area. If you have a perspective to share, let us know at [email protected]

I was at the Blue Light Camp in Manchester yesterday with a bunch of very interesting folks exploring the application of Social Media to policing (etc.) – lots of useful comments and links to be found using #blcamp

I was there wearing my professional as opposed to political hat (although I did mention my other interest). Some very useful debates and I will blog about the session that I ran concerning the use to be made by PCC candidates before the election and then PCCs post election to engage with their local communities.

Some reflections:

• Trust is a key aspect of social media – police and all others risk a great deal if they engage in deception
• The 10th most tweeted account during the riots of last year was Greater Manchester Police (number one was the chap promoting the sweep up of the...
  
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…because you can’t make this up.

Is there anything Lembit Opik won’t do for publicity?

Labour Candidates

Jon Harvey revealed that his rival on the shortlist for the Labour nomination for Thames Valley Police and Crime Commissioner is Tim Starkey.

Sue Pearson has joined the ranks of the longlisted Labour hopefuls in Northumbria, and in Leicestershire, City Councillor Sarah Russell has been selected as the Labour candidate, without the need for a ballot of members.

Cllr Shaun Wright has told TopOfTheCops he is on the Labour Shortlist for South Yorkshire, and as that is not the end of the road, it suggests there are more people on that list – readers, please feel free to let us know who else has made it!

Lee Barron and Mike Caseman-Jones have been shortlisted for Labour in Northamptonshire.

Keith Hunter and John Prescott are at least two of the names on the Labour shortlist in Humberside.

Paul Gleeson is one of the two shortlisted Labour candidates for Lincolnshire.

The Liverpool Echo’s David Bartlett has summed up the race to win the Labour nomination in Merseyside, where two former Ministers and the Chair of...

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Jon Harvey is seeking the Labour nomination to be the Police and Crime Commissioner in Thames Valley. If you are intending to stand to be Police and Crime Commissioner where you live, you can submit your own Candidate Statement, so get in touch at [email protected] – Others are on the way, and we are looking for 400 words, a photo (of you!) that you have rights to, and preferably an imprint, which will be needed for the formal election period later this year.​

WHY SELECT ME AS YOUR CANDIDATE?

Please consider these three reasons

> Community understanding
> Campaigning passion, flair, experience and creativity
> Extensive knowledge of and a deep commitment to good policing

I have lived, worked & studied across the Thames Valley area for the last 35 years. I went to University in Reading. I then worked in housing for the Borough Council and social care research for the Berkshire County. I moved to live in Oxford in 1985 where I worked in Health Education across the county. I lived there until 2008. I now live in Buckingham where...

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My last article on the Police Federation prompted a number of comments, two of which were to the effect that I’d got it wrong, and that membership of the Police Federation was not compulsory.

Now, as it happens, it is clear that the Federation is the only statutory staff association for federated ranks, and therefore my points still hold – if it gets too political, or the wrong kind of political, officers are not free to take themselves elsewhere.

However, whether membership is automatic, and whether subscriptions have to be paid are actually very important points. What I stated was my impression from when I joined the service and a Fed Rep addressed our intake on day 1 or 2 of the course, when we were still inclined to believe whatever it was he said.

But what is the truth? – I am having difficulty locating the Police Act 1919 online at the moment, which is where I think this will be resolved, so perhaps readers will be able to help. For now, we know the following:-

The Federation describe themselves as “a staff association for all police...

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I was once a member of the Police Federation. This was not by choice, other than that I had chosen to be a police officer, and I couldn’t do that without being in the Federation. I don’t remember feeling any huge benefit from being in the Federation, and remember colleagues who thought it was only really there to help officers seeking sickness pensions, and that this role has largely gone in the time since then. I contributed to an insurance scheme they arranged in case any of us were sued, and I now know there were lots of things they did of which I was unaware at the time, but I neither engaged with it, nor was motivated to protest being forced to be part of it.

For most people, that may not seem unusual, but not being motivated was a big deal for me. Immediately prior to being a police officer, I had spent 3 years at university as a student, and therefore as a member of the National Union of Students. Again, no choice, but in that role I kicked off merrily, protesting about the enforced membership of a pretend trade union, gathering signatures...

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