PCC elections: ‘A ‘relentless focus’ on cuts will be the number one priority for would be voters in the Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) elections. In one month’s time, voters in 41 areas of England and Wales will head to the polls to elect a local Police and Crime Commissioner.

• You can find out more about the PC elections on www.choosemypcc.org.uk site.
• On November 15th, 2012, for the first time, you will be able to vote for your local PCC – 41 new police and crime commissioners will be elected across England and Wales.
• The final list of candidates is expected tomorrow. A ‘group of fading politicians, a clutch of right-wing extremists, local party grandees and a dwindling band of tenacious independents’ could become ‘some of the most powerful figures in policing’ – according to the Independent today.
• The JusticeGap is supporting the Howard League for Penal reform/ UR Boss ‘Keep it clean’ campajgn.
• The two pictures are stills from the Home Office campaign.

‘PCCs will take charge with police forces undergoing massive upheaval and there will be a relentless focus on finances and cuts,’ reckons James Taylor, partner for policing at the business consultancy Deloitte. PCCs will take office with police budgets set to decline by 20% by 2014-15; the Winsor Review recommending annual pay and allowance savings of £163 million; and the Government aiming to save 4.5 million hours in police time by cutting ‘red tape’ and £1 in every £7 of police budgets being spent on pensions.

Meanwhile a youth campaigner has accused a new TV campaign to promote the elections of ‘perpetuating the myth that the elderly need to fear the young’.

The Home Office had simply ‘tramped out the old stereotype that we’ve all got to fear young people,’ Tony Gearing, founder of the Young People of the Year (Yopey) awards was reported to say. ’I’m now fearful,” he said. “Are the police and crime commissioners going to treat crime in the same coarse, crude and stereotypical way?’

‘It’s an incredibly unjust advert that perpetuates the myth that the elderly need to fear the young. Young people are the victims of crime. Where was the middle-aged rapist? Where was the elderly financial crook? It was mainly low-level crime all being committed by young people.’
Tony Gearing