Durham Police and Crime Commissioner elections: Who can I vote for?

Joy Allen (Labour)

BANGING the drum for fairer funding for the police service in Darlington and County Durham must be among the top priorities for the next commissioner, Labour’s candidate Joy Allen has claimed.

Ms Allen, whose career has seen her working for public sector bodies such as councils, the police and fire services and leading partnerships to tackle anti-social behaviour, believes the commissioner’s key challenge will be to get more police back on the streets and get justice for victims.

She said: “The victims’ confidence at the moment is at an all-time low. There’s more cases than ever failing due to victims’ non-cooperation and it it now counts for a quarter of all cases. As commissioner I will stand up and defend victims’ rights.”

Ms Allen said victims of sexual violence were being let down, with only one in every 50 rape allegations leading to a charge.

Councillor Joy Allen

This situation, she says, has been exacerbated by the closure of courts over the past decade.

She added: “More an more criminals are going unpunished while victims are left in limbo for years as the justice system grinds to a halt.”

In response, her strategy would focus on crime prevention, but to do that she would seek the support of other commissioners nationwide to call for fairer government funding for police services. She said the Durham force’s tax-raising capacity was limited due to having a high proportion of low council tax rate bands. She said: “In County Durham and Darlington a one per cent tax rise yields about £2.3m whereas in Surrey a one per cent rise yields about £10m.”

As a result, she said, Durham’s force had lost 400 officers since 2010 while Surrey had seen its officer numbers reduced by just 57 over the same period.

When asked if she supported the previous commissioner Ron Hogg’s stance on decriminalising drugs, she replied she was an evidence-led politician.

She said: “Drug addiction destroys lives and spreads crime and the fear of crime and puts money in the hands of organised criminals.

“We will target and disrupt illegal drugs traders and pursue offenders and take them to court, but we need to support those with addictions who often turn to crime to fund their habit.”

Anne-Marie Curry (Lib Dem)

DEVELOPING partnerships with communities and public bodies such as councils and the NHS is key to cementing Durham Constabulary’s position as one of the country’s top performing police forces, according to Liberal Democrat candidate Anne-Marie Curry.

She said to make in-roads into tackling the persistent issue of antisocial behaviour, such as irresponsible quad bike riding and speeding cars, more resources would also need to be focused on a crackdown.

Ms Curry said: “It has to be done with a visible police force. At the moment insufficient resources are being pumped into tackling antisocial behaviour. Areas are having to wait their turn to have the police off-road motorcycle team that can deal with it. Having been a councillor I could use that council link to help the police enforce or minimise the distractions that go on in certain estates.

Anne-Marie Curry

“The biggest challenge for me is getting more police officers and police community support officers on the ground because the public are losing confidence on seeing the police, so I’d like a more visible police force.”

While Ms Curry said she would seek to continue some of the policies of the previous commissioner, such as lobbying to decriminalise cannabis, she would review the issues that different communities are having by opening discussions with residents.

Another priority would be to work with health teams to reduce the amount of time police spent dealing with low level crimes committed by people with mental health issues.

She added: “I would hope to be able to work with other police forces around the area as criminals do not see the borders. With a lot of rural crimes people come from different areas, so there has to be more cross-border action and sharing of intelligence to stop this sort of crime. Farm Watch has been extremely useful, but I would like to develop that so there is better intelligence and a dedicated small team working on this with other police forces to nail down where these criminals are coming from and try and trap them.”

George Jabbour (Conservative)

THE biggest issue the incoming Durham Police and Crime Commissioner will face as they take office is the potential consequences of the plans to centralise the forces custody suites, according to entrepreneur and charity founder George Jabbour.

Despite proposals having already been approved, the Conservative candidate said he would reverse the decision to close custody suites in Bishop Auckland, Peterlee, Durham City and Darlington and build a central one in Spennymoor at a cost of £21m. He said: “There would be a lot of time that is wasted on the road by our police officers rather them spending more time on the streets keeping our communities safe.”

When asked if he disagreed with the force’s argument that the centralisation would increase detainees’ and officers’ safety and improve the service’s ability to investigate crime, Mr Jabbour said he was “absolutely convinced” about maintaining the status quo after carrying out in-depth research into the issue.

He said keeping several custody suites would clear the way to tackling anti-social behaviour, enabling more officers to be on the streets and in rural areas.

Mr Jabbour said: “If we have more police officers on the streets in the community then it will be easier for them to respond to reports of anti-social behaviour, it will be easier for them to respond to reports of drugs and other crimes that are taking place.

“We are getting more police officers because of the government’s commitment to recruiting 20,000 more officers, and in Durham we are ahead of schedule in terms of the recruitment process, but with those additional resources it is crucial we use their time efficiently and effectively to tackle as many incidents as possible.”

Mr Jabbour said he would also seek to reverse the previous incumbent’s stance on decriminalising drugs and pledged “a big change” in tackling offenders.

He added: “There has been a real relaxation in terms of the determination of our police force in prosecuting some of the drugs-related incidents. I will re-introduce a new more strict approach to tackling drugs.”