Your say / avon and somerset police
‘The rule of law can protect the rights of the most vulnerable’
In a few weeks, the people of Bristol will be voting for the Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner, and I will be standing as the candidate for the Green Party.
I am doing this because I have always had a strong belief in the rule of law as a way to protect the rights of the most vulnerable.
This enduring interest in social justice is also what motivated me in the past few years to become a Family Court magistrate in Avon and Somerset, as well as a Bristol councillor.
is needed now More than ever
It is also why I have spent twenty years in conflict and humanitarian contexts such as Somalia, Chad, and Afghanistan, working with the United Nations and other organisations.
I worked in refugee camps and borders, focusing mainly on the protection of women and children in the context of war and disaster. Those years have given me an acute appreciation for a strong, protective and accountable justice system, having seen what life can be like without it.
In Bristol, we have much to be grateful for, but day to day life is not safe everywhere and for everybody. Stabbing injuries and deaths are a terrible reality, most recently involving teenage victims, and in some cases, teenage perpetrators.
Katy hopes to build on “bolder approaches with families, schools, youth services and civil society” to tackle knife crime – photo: Mia Vines Booth
Knife violence has a number of causes from poverty and social exclusion, to peer pressure and self-defence, and I will be asking the police to address these causes, hand in hand with community.
This means building on bolder approaches with families, schools, youth services and civil society, such as the 2021 Safer Options strategy. We need justice not just in our courts but in our whole policing and crime system.
I was speaking last week with Khalil from Bristol Horn Youth Concern, who run programmes in Easton and St Paul’s that seek to educate children and young people, provide hope and security, and lead them away from routes to drug use and knife crime.
The place of the police is vital in these kinds of community activities, with known and trusted officers taking part in actions that are positive and build trust.
The police would not be working alone; we all have a role to play. I am a signatory to the Together for Change campaign, a brave effort by individuals, groups and the media across the city to set up a taskforce to fight knife crime, and create a roadmap for service-providers and stakeholders.
I see the police working alongside what we expect to be a Green-led Bristol City Council after the May elections, and with a new Green MP for Bristol Central, Carla Denyer, after the general election.
Greens have always prioritised addressing the causes of knife crime, as evidenced by the Green Party motion to Full Council last year, where we called for more funding and attention to the issue.
Avon and Somerset covers a huge area from South Gloucestershire down to West Somerset. Having grown up on a farm on the Devon/Somerset border, near Exmoor, I also have a good understanding of countryside life in our region, and I have the range of experience to address the different policing challenges in both urban and rural areas.
Most of all, as commissioner, I intend to hold the force to account. Representing the public, listening to community concerns and hopes, and making sure these are driving police priorities and the long-term vision of change – this is the most important role the police commissioner has.
I look forward to being able to do this for the people of Bristol, Avon and Somerset.
This is an opinion piece by Katy Grant, a Clifton councillor and family court magistrate who is the Green Party candidate to be Avon & Somerset police & crime commissioner
Main photo: Green Party
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