As Nicky Campbell said towards the during BBC1’s Police Elections 2012, elections for posts of Police and Crime Commissioner will have a huge effect on how we live. So it was disappointing that this show was a mere half-hour long but, to be fair, Nicky made every minute work.
Shami Chakrabarti of Liberty pointed out rightly that an elected official per Constabulary isn’t enough; we also need the rule of law. A lady on the discussion panel who lived in an area plagued by thuggery made the best possible case for an elected PCC: "authorities mark their own homework all the time".
A test case presented to the panel was Luton, with its "community tensions". We saw stock footage of the few English Defence League members who make the most noise, but (and this surprised me) it was followed by footage of extremists protesting against returning troops with banners calling them "murderers". There was no footage of them burning poppies, but this is itself a symptom of the real problem: that a group of radicalised individuals has preyed on men, women and children from every community bar none in Luton and elsewhere in Bedfordshire, with the authorities marking their own homework in response to complaints.
As shown, one of the five candidates contesting the Bedfordshire election for PCC is Kevin Carroll, and the above is one of many areas in which I believe he and Chief Constable Alf Hitchcock will work together to address, others being alcohol-fuelled violence, antisocial behaviour in general and Bobbies on the beat.
Many candidates didn't know their Chief Constable's name; Kevin Carroll has had meetings with CC Hitchcock regarding the prospect of them working together. He is Bedfordshire's answer to the heartfelt plea of a householder interviewed for the program: "we pay our taxes too, and we matter."
Gerry Dorrian
300 words
Resources
Police Elections 2012: click for the version discussed above
Police Elections 2012: click for versions for other TV areas
Click to go to Kevin Carroll's bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner election website
Watch Kevin Carroll's PCC election video below or click here to watch it on YouTube
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