West Midlands PCC to attend scrutiny meeting over Walsall crime rate
The Police and Crime Commissioner for West Midlands Police has confirmed he will attend a scrutiny committee meeting today at Walsall Council.
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When the date was first set last year, scrutiny committee members were highly amused at the thought of the PCC, Simon Foster, attending the meeting scheduled for today (April 17) at 6pm.
Chair of the committee councillor John Murray, said the the council had previously faced ‘great difficulty in securing him’ in the past.
Previously to this, councillor Garry Perry, the leader of Walsall Council, had launched an attack on the role of the Police and Crime Commissioner at a public meeting when pressed about the levels of violent crime across the borough.
During an 11-week period between July 8 and September 24 last year, there were at least seven reported incidents of gun or knife crime across Walsall, equating to about one every 10 days.
At the meeting councillor Perry said the PCC post was a ‘total waste of time’, a ‘talking shop’ and called for the role to be abolished.
Police and Crime Commissioners are elected officials who exist to cut crime and hold the police force to account.
Simon Foster, labour, was re-elected in May 2024. According to the Association of PCCs, his annual salary costs taxpayers £101,900.
The PCC said the police recorded crime data is ‘incapable of providing a meaningful view of the true level of crime’, but did not provide any alternative data for the Walsall area for the same time period.
He instead said the Crime Survey of England and Wales was a ‘better indicator’, showing a ‘downward trend in the likelihood of being a victim of crime’ in the West Midlands.
Foster said: “According to the CSEW, from 2016/2017 to 2023/2024, in the West Midlands, the proportion of people reporting that they have recently been a victim of crime has nearly halved.
“Police recorded crime is an unreliable indicator of crime trends, because it is affected by changes in Home Office counting rules, police recording practices, policing activity, crime data integrity, positive action strategies and changes in levels of reporting to the police.
“The previous government imposed inexplicable, inexcusable and reckless financial cuts on West Midlands Police, our essential preventative public services and our criminal justice system.
“That resulted in the loss of 25 per cent of our police officers, 50 per cent of our PCSOs, community policing was dismantled and there was a loss of youth services and drug, alcohol and mental health services.
“In addition, the previous government seriously undermined our criminal justice system. That was a big mistake, counterproductive and a false economy. It had a significant adverse impact, on the ability of policing and our criminal justice system, to prevent and tackle crime.
“I am committed to holding the Chief Constable and West Midlands Police to account, on behalf of the people of the West Midlands who elected me.”
