Voters head to the polls tomorrow to elect a new police, fire and crime commissioner for North Yorkshire.
As candidates finalise campaigning ahead of the poll, they have spoken of what they view as the biggest tasks facing Conservative Julia Mulligan’s successor to ensure the best policing service possible is delivered.
Today, we feature Philip Allott, Conservative candidate, and Labour’s Alison Hume.
You can read about the Liberal Democrat and Independent candidates here.
Philip Allott, Conservative
A toughened approach to crack down on county lines drug dealing would be the top of marketing specialist Philip Allott’s agenda if he is named the new commissioner.
The former pupil at King James’ School in Knaresborough said despite the best endeavours of North Yorkshire Police and the regional crime unit, county lines dealers “are obviously still very active in North Yorkshire”.
Dismissing a suggestion that the issue was persisting due to a lack of resources to tackle it, he said government funding was being directed to the regional crime unit.
He said:
“The thing I am interested in is making the drug dealers’ lives a misery. In many cases there is intelligence and we can use that intelligence to stop vehicles on suspicion, particularly cross-border.”
Mr Allott said he would push for further work to enable teachers to spot pupils who are part of county lines drug dealing, help housing associations to identify cuckooing and action to spot children carrying drugs on railways.
He said:
“The police on their own are not going to solve this and I see my role as working with different agencies, getting them all on board and actually communicating with each other, sharing intelligence and working for the greater good.”
Mr Allott said as commissioner he would also foster closer working with other agencies, launching a “complete reset” between the councils and the commissioner’s office.
He said:
“We should be working for the greater good. I see the councillors from each of the different authorities as the eyes and ears of the commissioner. I see it as a partnership approach and that’s perhaps a very different way of looking at things.”
Read more:
- Political parties confirm candidates for police commissioner elections
- Labour crime candidate: county lines is ‘ripping families apart’
- Tory crime candidate: No plans to close more police stations
Alison Hume, Labour
Clamping down on serious crime, rural crime and antisocial behaviour would be among York-based lecturer and TV writer Alison Hume’s top priorities.
But the most important issue for her would be tackling violence against women and girls, using some of the commissioner’s £5m pot for victims to introduce a clear strategy working across all agencies and attract further funding to get to grips with what she describes as “a national emergency”.
She said:
“If this was happening to men, dare I say it would have been dealt with.”
Ms Hume said the greatest challenge for the incoming commissioner would be to connect with the public.
She said:
“You have to be the voice of the people and for the last nine years we’ve had a commissioner who hasn’t been visible and approachable.”
Ms Hume added tackling county lines was “clearly number one on the list” of challenges for North Yorkshire Police.
She said:
“Crime gangs are ripping our families and communities apart. support the creation of a specialist enforcement unit to track criminals on roads and railways and support drug diversion schemes to reduce harm and demand.
“The people who get caught up in county lines are not criminals, they are victims, we need to build safe services to prevent them going into a life of crime. North Yorkshire does not get a fair share of the pie and I will be fighting at a national level for better funding.”
She said she would establish a rural crime taskforce in every district, with officers trained in dealing with offences ranging from domestic abuse to wildlife crime.
She added:
“I think the public would be shocked to know the rural crime taskforce is just a handful of officers and they have to cover the whole of North Yorkshire.”
