Candidate argues for more police (From Crewe Guardian)

Candidate argues for more police

7:10am Monday 27th August 2012 in News By Matthew Taylor

LABOUR’S candidate for Cheshire’s new leader of the police, has said Special Constables should not be seen as a replacement for full time police officers.

John Stockton is running to become Police and Crime Commissioner in an election held this November.

Among their powers, the individual elected to the post will have the ability to set policing priorities and discipline the Chief Constable.

As reported in The Guardian, police officer numbers in Cheshire have fallen to their lowest level for nearly a decade.

The county has lost 144 since March 2010, and figures indicate a further 250 go by 2015.

Mr Stockton said: “I hugely value the work Special Constables do here in Cheshire, they do a remarkable job unpaid, and are a great asset to our community.

“But there wouldn't be the need for such a dramatic recruitment increase in volunteers if the Tory-led Government wasn't forcing Cheshire Police to cut so many full time police officers.”

He added that the Government was ‘undermining an effective and efficient police force here in Cheshire by cutting frontline police officers’.

Cheshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner will be elected by voters on November 15.

So far, Mr Stockton is joined in the running by John Dwyer (Conservative) and Sarah Flannery (Independent).