Row over police training after force inspection

A POLICE commissioner in Yorkshire has failed to recognise the importance of training officers in “basic investigation skills” amid low crime-solving figures, political rivals have claimed. But the comments by Liberal Democrats have sparked a political row, with commissioner Mark Burns-Williamson staunchly defending his record and accusing the party of scaremongering. Coun Jeanette Sunderland, who leads the Liberal Democrat group on Bradford Council, said in east Bradford three quarters of crimes were resulting in no further action. She claimed that the responsibility for this lay with the Labour police and crime commissioner, adding: “To us he seems to fail to recognise what we are sure is a public priority – the importance of training police officers in basic investigation skills.” Her comments came a month after Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary gave the force an overall rating of ‘good’ but said its investigation of crime required improvement. Coun Sunderland also criticised the work of the local police and crime panel, set up to scrutinise Mr Burns-Williamson’s work. She questioned how effective this could be given that it was made up of a majority of fellow Labour members and had a Labour chairwoman. Mr Burns-Williamson said the independent inspectors had rated the force as good for the past three years and had also recognised “the strategic leadership of myself and the chief constable”. He added: “No concerns about the work of me or my office have been raised directly by Cllr Sunderland over this time. But let’s see this for what it is, criticisms levied at democratically elected Labour politicians in West Yorkshire by the leader of the Lib Dems in Bradford, three days before an election – blatant electioneering and scaremongering.” Labour chairwoman of the police and crime panel Coun Alison Lowe also gave a strong rebuttal to the claim that she and her team were failing to properly scrutinise Mr Burns-Williamson. She accused the Liberal Democrats of hypocrisy, saying it was they, as part of the coalition Government, who had set up the system across England and Wales in 2012 as a replacement for police authorities. She said: “Without them getting into bed with the Tory Government, there would not be a police and crime commissioner and there would not be a police and crime panel. “So suck it up, you did it to yourselves. Don’t then go and turn the tables and blame the 14 of us working really, really hard ever since day one to hold Mark and his activity to account. “We are working really, really hard and I think we are being effective.” Police and crime panels are required to reflect the political balance in their areas. In 2014, the Home Affairs select committee noted that this “inevitably” means a majority of panel members are from the same party as the commissioner they scrutinise.