Crime Commissioner faces challenge for role
ALEADING campaigner against domestic violence and forced marriages is aiming to oust former Home Office Minister Alun Michael from his current role as South Wales Police and Crime Commissioner.
Mr Michael, who was also the inaugural First Secretary (now First Minister) of the National Assembly for the first nine months of its existence, has been the PCC since the post was established in 2012 and is up for re-election next May.
But he is being challenged for the Labour candidacy by Shahien Taj, the founder and executive director of the Henna Foundation, a Cardiff-based body that helps victims of so-called honour-based violence and forced marriages.
A Muslim who was born in Bridgend to parents from Pakistan, Ms Taj has also been involved in counter-terrorism initiatives. In her bid to become a PCC candidate, she has secured the support of Welsh Labour Grassroots, the offshoot in Wales of the Jeremy Cotbyn-backing Momentum group.
She said: “I believe I have the experience to make the PCC’s office accessible to a more diverse range of people from communities across the South Wales Police area. If I had the honour of being elected as the PCC, I would see myself as a critical friend of the police. But I would also seek to hold the Chief Constable and the rest of the force’s senior management to account. I thought about whether I should challenge Alun Michael – I do respect him. But I believe it’s time for a change.”
She said her priorities were dealing with violent crime and getting
communities more engaged. Ms Taj said she was not convinced that South Wales Police should have invested in Automated Facial Recognition software – a tool aimed at identifying known criminals in a crowd: “I am all in favour of improving security and tackling criminals, but I share civil liberty concerns about facial recognition. From my reading it seems it is a technology that is still evolving. I also read of one situation where four out of five faces on the software were matched with the wrong individuals.”
Asked about the challenge he is facing – which arises out of a Labour Party rule change which makes it easier to trigger a full candidate selection – Mr Michael said: “I shall be standing on my record. We are in difficult times and we need people of experience to deal with the impact of austerity and drug-related crime.
“South Wales Police has developed a very good reputation during the time I have been the commissioner for tackling the causes of crime as well as crime itself. The force has done a lot of work around adverse childhood experiences, which have played a significant role in turning young people to crime in the first place. One of the initiatives I introduced has been regular meetings between myself, the Chief Constable and leaders of the local authorities in the force area.”
Mr Michael disagreed with Ms Taj’s concerns about facial recognition software, saying it was an invaluable tool. The election begins on July 29 and votes will be counted on September 12.