Your say / police and crime commissioner
‘It’s time for change in the police’
I’ve been canvassing for several months. During that time, I’ve knocked on hundreds of doors – I’m sorry if I didn’t make it to yours, but there are almost a million of them!
I’ve spoken to serving and former police officers, and they all say the same thing: Our police are in disarray. The many police officers I’ve met are angry at the hollowed-out and ineffective force.
Nearly all burglaries – 93 per cent of them – go unsolved in Avon and Somerset. And what are we given by the Tories? Mere gimmicks.
is needed now More than ever
We in the Liberal Democrats are promising proper community policing, where officers are visible and trusted, with the time and resources to focus on neighbourhood crime.
My experience as a long-serving local councillor means I’m ready to start tackling the problems. My council built the first council houses – actual council houses, at council rents – for more than 30 years in West Somerset.
This works directly to tackle one of the biggest causes of crime in our area – inequality, and I’m proud of this success. Liberal Democrats, working hard for everybody, keeping it local.
You have to wonder how policing has got so bad under successive Conservative governments, first making sweeping cutbacks and then trying to put the damage right by hiring a huge wave of officers, many of whom are still in training. This isn’t management – it’s government incompetence.
At the moment, the police are fighting fires – literally struggling to cut the death rate from knife crime and domestic violence – when much of the present trouble could be “nipped in the bud” by preventive action like school visits, and clearing up the small stuff before it gets out of hand.
Figures show that Avon and Somerset Police has just FOUR officers in its rural crime team, and nationally there are more than 4,000 fewer PCSOs since 2015. The Liberal Democrats have called the police “a force on its knees” and promise that every crime matters.
It’s never been more important to vote for change. Long-term change, brought about by looking at the evidence and listening to the community. That’s what we offer with the Liberal Democrats.
Benet Allen is a Liberal Democrat councillor for Periton and Woodcombe
Main photo: Benet Allen
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