New police boss shares his plan to battle crime
JONATHAN EVISON SAYS HE WANTS TO REACH ‘LEFT BEHIND’ AREAS
HUMBERSIDE’S new Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) has said “restoring faith” in the force particularly in rural communities and raising his role’s profile are among his priorities for office. Jonathan Evison, PCC-elect for Humberside after being declared victor of elections on Saturday, May 8, said the reporting of crime had to improve and conviction rates needed to rise.
He added a “disappointing” election turnout meant the profile of his role needed raising and that even he would need to learn more about its full scope.
The Conservative incoming PCC and current North Lincolnshire mayor’s comments came after he unseated Labour incumbent Keith Hunter, winning by a total of 79,534 votes to 71,615.
Mr Hunter was set to remain in the post until yesterday before formally handing over to Mr Evison today. The incoming PCC said his victory did not surprise him despite being drafted into the race late after previous Conservative candidate Craig Ulliott dropped out amid dishonesty allegations.
Mr Evison said: “I did come into this election late in the day, but I’ve had a very good team available to me.
“But I also wasn’t surprised given the national picture. It was disappointing to see a turnout of about 22 per cent, it should have been more like 40 per cent.
“We’ve got around 900,000 people in the Humber region, so engaging with the public is going to be a major priority.
“As PCC I want to be out there promoting the role, there’s a number of ways we can do that either on social media or in person the old fashioned way.
“During the election I was able to speak to a lot of voters over social media mostly and to be honest a lot of people don’t know much about the role, there’s a lot of work to do in that respect.
“I’m now going to learn all I can about the office and how it works, though I have a lot of experience already after being on the Police and Crime Panel for seven years, including chairing it.
“I’ve also been active in my community all my life and I have good connections across the Humber.” Mr Evison said he had already begun working on his Police and Crime Plan which will set out his programme for office.
The incoming PCC said: “I’ve got some of the plan in my head, but I need to make it more robust, I’ll be working on it over the summer and hopefully it will be ready by autumn. “My main priorities will be tackling drugs and antisocial behaviour and I want Humberside Police to have a much more visible presence. “We need to ensure people are confident that they can contact the police and that the force will follow up on them. That means restoring faith in the 101 system, there’s a lack of confidence in it at the moment. You see that in our rural areas, they feel left behind and there’s surveys to back that up.
“Rural crime is no different to town crime in the toll it takes on communities.
“According to a National Farmers’ Union survey 60 per cent of rural crimes go unreported because people have no faith that they’ll be dealt with, we’ve got to address that. “One way of doing that is getting conviction rates up, even if it means we’ll have higher crime figures as a result.
“The reporting of crime has gotten an awful lot better, but we need to make sure the police are there for people.”
The new PCC said despite issues around reporting, he felt the public backed the police on the whole but warned he opposed national moves to bring back targets.
Mr Evison’s predecessor also spoke out against Home Office plans for targets floated in January in a bid to cut crime by 20 per cent: “Overall though I think there is a quiet confidence in communities that the police do a good job, even if they’ve had bad press.
“We tend to focus on the bad interactions but not those which take place day to day. The chief constable is the one responsible for the force day to day, I’m here to support him and be a critical friend.
“I agree with Keith Hunter, I don’t think national targets work, they skew the system. “We’ve got to do what we think is the right thing for us, that changes from community to community. “Ultimately the police should be there for the public, and the PCC should be their advocate.”
Rural crime is no different to town crime in the toll it takes on
communities.
Jonathan Evison