Our promises

The Labour & Co-operative candidate for Police & Crime Commissioner for Hertfordshire is Philip Ross. He is Chartered Engineer and a self-employed cyber-security expert.

Under his leadership Hertfordshire police’s priorities will be to focus on anti-social behaviour, to tackle the County Lines drugs gangs that are targeting school-aged children and bring his expertise to win the battle on cyber-crime, as well as bringing a fresh focus on domestic abuse and hate crime.

The new strategy will ensure that people, families, and businesses are safe:

On-line,
In their homes and at work
And on the streets.

The new policing strategy will be around the C.I.V.I.C principles of policing. These ensure that the focus is on the causes of crime while ensuring that Hertfordshire police is:

effective in its operations,
accountable to its community and
is a place where officers are highly motivated and productive.

There is much to do as the Police Federation reported in December that Conservative-run Hertfordshire police has the lowest morale of any police force in the country. Officers appear to be fed-up at the lack of leadership, long term lack of investment and lack of appreciation. After years of Conservative underfunding this is of no surprise.

Thankfully, the Conservatives have agreed with Labour that police numbers do matter, and they are now recovering but there remains a deficit in training, equipment and back-office staff.

There remain serious issues since criminals are using technology to run their operations, cyber crime affects every household and young people are seeing their reputations and futures damaged by on-line stalking and illegal picture sharing. None of this is specialist crime anyone, this all needs to be part of mainstream policing.

Audits of Hertfordshire Constabulary over recent years have criticised it for lack of staff training leading to problems with child protection, victim support and cyber-crime. The Conservative’s are always out of touch and behind and playing catch-up and it is the public, serving officers and victims who pay the price.

Local policing has also suffered across the county, outside of the largest towns, few police stations are open to the public. The only way to speak to the police is often via a grubby telephone on the outside wall of stations that connects people to a distant call centre. This is the Conservative model of local policing, meanwhile anti-social behaviour is out of control, county line drug dealing is rife and Hertfordshire countryside is suffering the effects from a 50% rise in fly tipping.

It is of no surprise that the Conservatives are out of touch, over recent years the number of open public forums to discuss policing can be counted on one hand. Labour will engage more in the first 10 weeks than they have in the past 10 years.

Labour’s alternative model is about face-to-face policing based on neighbourhood and community policing. It is based on what has worked well for the last 150 years and digital technology will enhance this model.

As Police & Crime Commissioner Philip Ross offers concrete and definitive action to ensure we are all safe on-line, in our homes and on the streets.

He will appoint a Hertfordshire Commissioner for Anti-Social Behaviour out of existing budgets. The Commissioner will use the Community Trigger legislation to empower victims and ensure their issues are resolved by councils, landlords and the police.
He will instruct the Chief Constable to focus resources on destroying the networks of organised County-Lines drug gangs starting with those that target school aged children.
As an expert in cyber-security he will bring his knowledge and expertise to partner with business to help firms, families and the vulnerable are secure on-line and focus resources to deliver prosecutions of these criminals where-ever they are.
He will deliver a community and neighbour-led policing that is accountable to both public and the communities and groups within it as well as to police officers.
He will move the current Office of the Police & Crime Commissioner from Harpenden to Watford and Stevenage. The Harpenden Office will become a training centre.
He will review the Policing funding model to ensure that resources are allocated to where the need is greatest.
He will create new local community policing forums in districts across Hertfordshire and for social and minority communities within it and will provide them with the power to hold the office of the Police & Crime Commissioner to account. Labour will do what the Conservatives are afraid to do, give power away to communities. It is what the Labour & Co-operative movement does best.

In short, we urge you to vote for Philip Ross as the Labour & Co-operative candidate because…

He has the right priorities for Hertfordshire; in tackling anti-social behaviour, county-lines drugs, cyber-crime, domestic abuse and hate crime.
He has the right approach and policies being led by C.I.V.I.C principles of community-led policy through an intelligence-led model that is both accountable and effective.
He has the best and most comprehensive plan for Hertfordshire.

He is the best candidate and in the partnership with other Labour candidates across Hertfordshire he can deliver positive change for us all, so that we can all be safe and prosperous where we live, work and play.

Philip is from Letchworth Garden City and is married with three children and works as self-employed consultant in cyber security. He is well as being one of the leading advocates for small business and the self-employed within the Labour Party.