Medway Messenger - Party People - Lib Dem take on Police & Crime Commissioners

With the Police and Crime Commissioner's elections due this May, there is the possibility of the public receiving mixed messages on the merits or otherwise of there being PCCs at all.

Even more worrying is the government suggestion that the remit of PCC's could be extended by making them not only responsible for regional police forces, but for local fire and ambulance services also.
Albeit that all three services work closely together in many circumstances, nonetheless they are quite different from one another and should not run the risk of becoming homogenised and thus potentially less effective.

It is no secret that Liberal Democrats question the need for PCC's at all, with many believing that by and large, they represent a failed experiment. That has become self-evident here in Kent in particular, though not exclusively, with one embarrassment quickly followed by another several times over. However, we are where we are and for the time being, it looks as if PCC's are here to stay. The LibDem position on this is that if this is so, then we would much rather have such a post put into the hands of the party offering 'sensible' policies, i.e. the Liberal Democrats.

But no matter who is elected into the post from whatever political party, it would seem that the government is not that interested in ensuring that the police funding in Kent is sufficient to cover the cost of the extra burden involved in policing immigration, both legal and illegal. It is a national responsibility which is primarily being borne by Kent which is in the front line. This potentially risks increases in other crimes within the county due to lack of adequate and more fairly distributed policing financial resources. And on top of all this, we have Operation 'Stack'.

Updated

The Liberal Democrat Candidate for Kent is Dave Naghi, as announced here.