On Thursday, May 6, voters will choose the next Police and Crime Commissioner for the Thames Valley. JESS WARREN meets the candidates
THE LIBERAL Democrat candidate for Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) said one of his key aims is to “make sure the rest of the criminal justice system pulls their weight”.
John Howson, who is standing in the Thursday, May 6 election, said the Thames Valley is worse than the national record for the time taken to solve crimes and progress them on to court.
“People are just not getting to court and justice is not being served,” he said. “If you’re a witness in a case, it’s disturbing having it hanging over you.
“We went into the pandemic with a bad record, we must not come out with a worse one.”
Commonly called for in Wokingham, Mr Howson said he “would love to see” a police station in the town centre, but said he “doesn’t think it will happen”.
Instead, he placed an importance on establishing a local point of contact.
“If you were walking on the street, and found that somebody had dropped their credit cards and £50, what would you do with it?” he said.
“The first thing I want to do is to talk to local authorities about libraries, centres, where those sorts of things can be handed in by responsible members of the public.”
He said borough libraries could also provide a useful point of contact for residents to use the internet and contact the police over an issue.”
This is part of his vision to create a “police service” instead of a “police force”.
“Our fundamental role is policing by consent,” Mr Howson said. “And our officers recognise they are serving the public.
“You have to, as the police, tread a very delicate line of enforcing the law. But you should start from a police service, not a police force. The challenge for the PCC is, how do you do that in those circumstances — and we’re trying to regain the trust of the people who are protesting.”
He said other priorities surrounded reducing the number of young people in the criminal justice system.
He added: “We know that most people start a life of crime when they’re young, and the decimation of youth services and transforming secondary schools into academy chains with lots of different headquarters has made it much more difficult to provide new services for vulnerable children.
“We need the sorts of services that keep those vulnerable people out of the life of crime and ensure they become useful responsible citizens. The role of the PCC is to stand between the operational role of the chief constable, and the strategic role of the government, to ask ‘what are you doing to ensure the number of people coming into the criminal justice system is reduced’?”
Mr Howson said he specialises in crime and education. As a former teacher, he has experience of violence in schools, and was stabbed while on duty at school in Tottenham.
He said he was concerned about the home secretary’s recent announcement to move fire and rescue services into regional hubs.
“That would mean a single fire and rescue service for the whole of the Thames Valley,” he said.
“If I was PCC, I would want to do everything possible to ensure that there is local involvement.”
Another of Mr Howson’s concerns is the rise in fraud, which he said “not enough resources are spent on”.
“It’s part of 21st century policing,” he said. “If crime is changing then policing has to change as well. If it is a national internet scam. We have to find a way policing that keeps the public safe from those.”
He also wants to focus on knife crime, as it rose during the pandemic.
