Litter & 'Cameron'.

Really enjoying going out on the campaign trail and finding out what local residents believe are the important matters the police should tackle.  I was in Sunderland last week and this week I'm concentrating on the Northumberland area.  On Monday afternoon I was in Alnwick and I was surprised to see just how many tourists were in town, hundreds!  All drawn to the magnificent castle and the gardens, which have proved so popular.  Yet if you go a few hundred yards in town you can't help notice all the litter cast to one side by people waiting at the bus terminus.  There are plenty of bins there but people are just too lazy to use them.  Local residents told me that this was fairly common and they are fed up with it.  I saw 2 Community Support Officers on patrol and I suspect litter was the last thing on their minds.  We really need to tackle these issues which may appear unimportant to some but I believe are central to restoring civic pride in our cities, towns and villages.  The trouble is these issues nag away at us, are a constant source of aggravation and the difficulty is that once people lose pride in where they live it can lead to general apathy and lawlessness.  That’s why as Police and Crime Commissioner I would prioritise litter as an important issue and I would urge the police to start clamping down by handing out fixed penalty tickets and as far as I’m concerned the sooner the better!

So you might be wondering about 'Cameron'?  Well yesterday I attended the Hexham Women's Association and spoke to them about similar concerns.  They agreed that litter and civic pride were hugely important issues to them and they too were in favour of clamping down on litterlouts.  It was great to meet so many people so energised about the role of PCC and with such positive views.  As an added bonus my wife and I won a small, bloodhound, soft toy in the tombola for Paddy our 8-month-old son.  We have decided to call him, 'Cameron' and he will be my new campaign mascot, let’s hope he brings me luck! 

Sunderland Dealer keeps home whilst pensioner reminded of 52p arrears

A big thank you to the Sunderland Resident’s Association I met today.  All of whom you would describe as the 'Salt of the earth'.   Men who had worked all of their lives and were proud to live as part of a local housing association.  Indeed they stated that they felt privileged to live where they did.  They acknowledged the good work of the local Police Community Beat team and were grateful for their efforts in ensuring that they lived in a safe and orderly place.  However they told me a tale, which even now I find incredulous!  Local residents had smelt a strong smell of 'happy baccy' in the vicinity and the police raided one place in particular.  It was a younger resident and inside his home was found masses of cannabis plants.  He was arrested but little happened to him as he said they were for his own use!!  Unbelievably he was allowed to keep his home, which was a social housing home under the auspices of the local housing association.  Guess what?...A few months later the police were back at his home and once again they found another cannabis farm.  He was arrested once more but this time he went to court and as far as the residents are aware he received a 'slap on the wrists’.  This is the bit I cannot believe...the housing association gave him the keys to his rented home yet again!!!  Meanwhile one of the retired residents a man who worked all of his life in the shipyards and on a state pension of £110 per week was sent a reminder of arrears by the same association for 52p!!!

I have not been able to corroborate these facts at present but if correct it staggers belief.  Needless to say I believe the correct course of action to take should have been immediate eviction after the first transgression.  No doubt there was bureaucracy, human rights and legal considerations but I'm sorry this sort of inaction just undermines the honest, hard working majority of families who reside in the area.  We need the police and the housing associations to work effectively together, to arrest, prosecute and if convicted seize offender's assets and evict them because as far as I'm concerned and I hope you agree? I believe they have abused their right to social housing. 

Now I know from my own research it costs about £8k to set up a cannabis farm but the profits can be as much as £150k! There is an offence under the Proceeds of Crime Act of 'facilitating money laundering' and I just wonder if the housing associations ever considered their own liability let alone the consequences of their actions upon the community.  I suspect that it was the offender’s human rights that were most foremost in their minds.  I promised the residents that if elected I would act to change this irresponsible, institutionalized mentality.

How to re build trust in our communities

Why is it that many of us distrust governmental institutions, politicians, and the political process and yet trust commercial brands?  What is it about Amazon, Apple, Argos and others that make us hand over our money with one click without even thinking about it?  We entrust these companies with our personal and financial information and then sign over all of our rights or entitlements to it!  It's an interesting dilemma for someone like me that's seeking a role such as Police and Crime Commissioner.  These are some of the things I've been discussing today at the EU Cities event ran by Belfast City Council and facilitated by INEQE.  We could learn a lot from the people of Belfast and Northern Ireland.  What was once a desperate no hope sort of place fed by hatred and bigotry is now an environment filled with booming confidence and optimism fueled by the emergence of a new technology sector?  2000 jobs have been created in a few short years with £80 million of salaries being used to regenerate the local economy.  It's been done by the community finally coming together and backed by government investment with a close alliance to the business community.  I was in a building today near the historic Titanic slipway that routinely transacts £900 trillion dollars of the world's global capital markets!  They have re built public confidence not just politically but by investing in a sound infrastructure backed up by a long-term vision.

We must utilise these new digital technologies that we as consumers have so much confidence in and use them to communicate with the public to ensure that agencies such as the police can communicate quickly and effectively with the public it serves.  We must ensure that the public have unfettered access to PCC's to ensure that they are able to say what they believe the police should be focusing on.   We must provide the public with access to easy to use digital technologies to encourage a free flow of information between the public, the PCC's and the police. We should expect and Insist upon the highest of professional standards for all public officials including the PCC and have a zero tolerance to all forms of fraud and corruption.  The PCC should ensure that the police are truly accountable to the public via the PCC and held to account whenever appropriate.

These are the reasons why I believe the appointment of PCC's are a good thing.  To bring true accountability to policing and re build the trust of the community in the political process.

Who the public would prefer as PCC

Interesting survey today published by the Policy Exchange via You Gov.  This is what it says:

Politicians will not make the best police commissioners, says new poll

Less than 1 in 10 people think that former MPs and councillors will be the best Police & Crime Commissioners (PCCs). A new poll for Policy Exchange, the think tank that first advanced the case for democratic oversight of the police, found that former government ministers and senior politicians were, in fact, seen as the least suitable candidates.

A majority of those surveyed (59%) thought former police officers would be the best candidates, followed by ordinary people with an interest in the issues (29%), someone from a military background (26%) or someone from a business background (13%). Former government ministers and senior politicians and MPs were deemed the least suitable – backed by just 6%.  

The poll of 1,700 people, carried out last week by YouGov, also found that voters wanted police commissioners to focus on local issues such as tackling anti-social behaviour (50%) and making the police more visible in the community (47%).  Voters were most concerned about burglary followed by vandalism, public drunkenness and drug crimes.

Asked which policies would make you more likely to vote for a candidate to be Police & Crime Commissioner, the public backed:

-          Moving more officers into neighbourhood policing teams (48%)

-          Seizing more assets from convicted criminals (46%)

-          Keeping police stations open (41%)

The survey also found that voters were not prepared to pay more for policing via their council tax – a key power that new Police Commissioners will have.

Blair Gibbs, Head of Policy Exchange’s Crime and Justice Unit, “Political parties need to think carefully about the kind of candidate they are putting forward for the Police Commissioner elections in November. Voters will value relevant experience over a political CV, and are looking to back candidates who speak to their concerns about local crime and disorder and the need to support visible, neighbourhood policing.” 

NEED I SAY MORE?

What every community needs

I went to a funeral today together with what seemed to be the rest of a local village called Wylam.  Indeed people came from far and wide to pay their respects to the local licensee Norman Weatherburn.  An engineer by trade he worked by day but ran a pub in his spare time.  After his retirement 10 years ago he ran several pubs including the hugely successful Boathouse which won awards year after year.  No matter how hard a day a customer had, Norman had a smile on his face and when asked how he was?  He often replied, "ticketyboo!"  This was despite the fact that he was subject to some vicious robberies in his time, one occurring not that long ago.  It made me appreciate how we rely on the 'Norman's' of this world and how we take such local characters for granted.  All our communities have such people, indeed they are the glue that hold our communities together.  The person who delivers the post, the police officer, the shop owner and indeed the local licensee all give our communities an infrastructure which provides us with our unique cultural identity.  It is when the minority of offenders try to disrupt this harmony by anti social behaviour or blatant criminality then the full force of the law, in a joined up approach should be applied to them, to ensure that our delicate tranquility of life is maintained.  Sadly in many communities this is not the case and a small number of offenders and their families terrorize other residents.  My aim is to target these individuals, we know who they are because every agency receives complaints about the same handful of individuals.  Agencies must improve at sharing community intelligence and acting decisively together,

A week's a long time in politics!

End of week one!  What a hectic but satisfying week it has been.  I've certainly hit the ground running and already met lots of people in a variety of places.  I spent Friday night in Corbridge at the Tynedale Real Ale festival and Stocksfield on Saturday with the Heddon Brownies watching the Olympic torch come through the village.  People seem really pleased that I'm standing for election as Police and Crime Commissioner.  The consensus from people I spoke to seemed to be that if we are going to have PCC's then they need to be people the public can trust.  I was told numerous times that the MP expenses saga really eroded people's confidence in politics.  They were reassured to know that if elected, I aim to root out corruption at all levels insisting on the highest standards for all public officials.  I'm also indebted to @ITspencer on Twitter for setting up a hash tag encouraging people to vote for me.  As it was unsolicited I'm very grateful and will watch it's progress with great interest.  This week I'll be heading back into Newcastle, attending an EU IT summit in Belfast,  then returning later in the week to meet people in Sunderland a place I spent a lot of time in when I was in the police.  Finally if you are a Dad, have a Dad or miss your Dad then I hope you have had a lovely day.  Being a father is a difficult job but one which is so important and carries an enormous responsibility.  The impression we make on our children stays with them for life.

The secret to reducing crime

I was fortunate to spend an hour with the elected Mayor of North Tyneside, Linda Arkley today.  She is a remarkable woman and an outstanding leader.  Like many people faced with trying to reduce crime and improving living standards for local residents she acknowledges that it is not just her problem.  So many agencies plough their own furrow, work with a silo mentality and fail to communicate with other agencies, let alone share intelligence.  The secret to reducing crime is to firstly acknowledge that crime is everybodies problem, not just the police or the local authorities?    Multi agency partnerships are the way forward and I've seen some fine examples in many places including the North East of England.  One fine example is in Eire, the Criminal Asset Bureau, known as the CAB and feared by Irish criminals.  It's aim is to disrupt serious and organised crime groups and seize assets from them.  They were so successful that in a few short years Irish criminals were packing their bags and moving off shore to places like the Costa Blanca.  The secret to their success was partnership working.  Each team was made up of a police officer, welfare worker, tax officer, customs officer etc.  They worked in small teams and were given specific criminals to target by their strategic command and they were as I say incredibly successful.  I would like to see similar CAB examples here in the North East.

Partnership working continues to bear fruit in the North East especially in North Tyneside through such schemes as the 'Widening horizons through sport' which has touched 70,000 children.  Such schemes are to be encouraged.  We must find ways of diverting children away from a life of drugs and crime into healthy positive life experiences.   So hats off to North Tyneside Council and their splendid leadership.  Their reward is knowing that North Tyneside remains the safest metropolitan borough in England, for the third year in a row!

How to deter criminals

I attended the annual conference of the North East Fraud Forum today.  We founded NEFF 9 years ago, it's a public private sector organization aimed at fighting fraud and financial crime.  The keynote speaker was Professor Martin Gill who has many years experience of interviewing convicted prisoners, everyone from fraudsters to armed robbers.  He gave us a valuable insight into his work and shared his considerable experience.  His big message was that of all that he has learned and what he has been told by offenders, his most important piece of advice was, "make sure you make any potential criminal believe he/she will be caught".  How simple is that?   This apparently is the most important deterrent that will put off any potential offenders.  So if you are examining your financial systems or the physical security of your premises then please consider this wise piece of advice.

Good piece on the role of PCC's on BBC Radio Newcastle this morning and some very good points made by Rt Hon Guy Opperman my constituency MP.  Good to get a mention and thanks to all the conference attendees who approached me and wished me luck.

The true cost of cannabis crime!

Spoke to today at the UK Revenue Protection Agency who kindly invited me to speak at their conference.  This was despite the fact that a few months ago I was complaining publicly that noone was doing anything proactively to deal with energy theft from cannabis farms.  It's the job of the UKRPA to enforce the public debt in this area and to their credit their latest strategy does include a move to becoming more proactive.  My estimate is that we lose about £1200 million in stolen electricity.  That's comparing the data from the police and UKRPA.  Just to put that in context we could open up at least 15 new hospitals, recruit thousands of nurses or police officers or 18 Eurofighters but not enough for a new aircraft carrier!  Seriously this is a massive problem and I was encouraged that afterwards in discussions they were motivated to work closely with academia, the police and other partners to get to grips with the problem  The sad thing is that we know from drug workers in Newcastle that more and more young people are being referred to drug intervention programmes for cannabis and less and less now for heroin and cocaine.  That's because there is a lot of it about, 7800 farms found last year and an estimate of 11800 this year and growing! Literally!

Just seen a post from a member of the public on the Sunderland Echo website saying, "Now Mr Butler has EXACTLY the qualifications required in this post. If we really need this new commissioner then what better than one with knowledge and experience of the job , the cost of the job and the future of the job....unlike either of the other two offerings.

I'm grateful for the kind words of support and this encourages me to stick to my beliefs that given my 30 years police experience in this region I am better placed to represent the public then a career politician.  To me it's just common sense?

Campaign Team

Great day today!  The team is coming together and I welcome on board my campaign manager and field worker!  I also have an experienced team of former senior police officers, business people and fellow party members who have pledged their support and assistance.  Even more gratifying is the number of serving and former police officers who have contacted me and pledged their votes already, and do you know why??  Because they agree they do not want a politician as their Crime Commissioner!  They would prefer someone with direct policing experience.  I think this is fantastic given the recent nervousness and tensions surrounding the Winsor review.

Today was the first day when I actually got out to meet some people in the business world and talk to them about my campaign and I have to say they were very supportive.  Tomorrow I'm leaving home at 4am to drive down to the Midlands to speak at the UKRPA event I mentioned yesterday.  It will be interesting to see if the energy industry are willing to take up the challenge and pull together to try and design out these cannabis farms.  They could do so much if they just worked together and linked up with academia, the police and other partners.  Let's hope they listen!

The week ahead and the Magnificent Seven!

Woke up this morning to the news that attacks on guide dogs were on the increase and immediately thought how sick can people get? Then Mrs B told me it was other dogs attacking them! The first press stories of the nomination ran today and feedback started arriving from friends and supporters alike. It seems that a lot of people agree with me that they would prefer a person with direct policing experience as Police and Crime Commissioner then a career politician. I'm speaking at the UK Revenue Protection Agency on Wednesday discussing the true cost of the commercial cultivation of cannabis. I estimate it at over £200 million in stolen electricity! Heading to the North East Fraud Forum conference at NUFC on Thursday and North Tyneside to see the Olympic torch on Friday. Starting to pull the campaign team together and already had volunteers. As I said to them a volunteer is worth 10 pressed men. I feel like Yul Brynner in the Magnificent Seven! As well as planning the campaign I actually did some forensic accountancy work on 3 cases. One is an asset stripping case where directors are fleecing the company. Another is a serious organised crime job where we are looking at recovering assets from the bad guys and finally trying to track down 2 sports cars which were disposed of by a bad guy who was trying to hide his assets following confiscation. I've included these things because I think you will find it interesting as to what forensic accountancy involves and it shows that I'm still passionate about fighting crime and hurting the bad guys where it hurts most, in their pockets!

Purdah

Reading the Representation of the People's Act whilst having 9 o'clock red tea (Patrick fast asleep) which is a nightly institution in the Butler household! Reminded me of when I was the Single Point of Contact for electoral offences and a case I dealt with in the region involving malicious posts on a notorious website. It was the only time I was ever mentioned in Private Eye a copy of which was hung proudly in the loo! Purdah seems to be 28 days before the election 15 November and this is an important time for all candidates as it specifies what you can and cannot do. Worth reading if you are considering standing for election or if you or a member of a Police Authority or Police Force.

Fantastic day yesterday being selected as the first Conservative candidate for the role of Police and Crime Commissioner in the North East.  Faced some stiff opposition from the 2 other candidates both of whom had all the experience necessary to do well in the election.  However I stuck to my guns and tried to keep my aims simple.  I firmly believe that this role needs an expert in policing not a career politician.  I'm a former police officer with a forensic mind with experience in business and cyber crime at Newcastle University CCCS.  Brought quickly down to earth after the event by attending my Niece's first birthday party in Haydon Bridge Fire Station which was brilliant.  What a great use of a public resource!  The fire station is used by the village, for parties, meetings and children's groups etc.   Then dashed home for a house viewing and had to generate my own press release for the local media.  Woken up by my son young Patrick 8 months at 3.35am and lay awake until 6am thinking about the campaign ahead.  Had some brilliant responses from friends, family and supporters who say that in this election they are voting for the person not the party which is interesting?  Happy days hopefully ahead and looking forward to developing the campaign.