Star comment: PCCs must now earn their keep
Crime across the region is even worse than we thought, according to the latest figures.
Recorded offences have gone up by 11 per cent in the West Midlands and 14 per cent in Staffordshire in just 12 months, with knife crime particularly high in both areas.
It is now time for police and crime commissioners’ David Jamieson and Matthew Ellis to show their worth.
They must show real teeth to get results or the public will start to view the role of commissioner as just another impotent branch of the civil service.
Complaining about Government cuts is not the answer. Mr Jamieson and Mr Ellis need to focus on the resources they have got, rather than what they would like to have.
Every spare person at their disposal should be on the front line. The days of vanity projects and ‘management flab’ must be a thing of the past.
Senior officers and politicians need to work hand-in-hand to do whatever it takes to reverse the trend of rising crime. However, it is not a fight they can win alone.
Often, experienced officers in private moments will admit crime is most likely to fall when local ne’er-do-wells are behind bars.
Sadly, this is happening far less frequently than it should be.
A major criticism of the Government is its shocking disregard for the criminal justice system.
Prisons have been allowed to become overcrowded, while too many of them lack discipline and are rife with drug abuse.
Theresa May has to return to true Conservative values of law and order.
We repeat our call for her to give greater resources to our local police forces, but also implore her to build more prisons.
It can be no coincidence that crimes involving people carrying knives have soared in the West Midlands and Staffordshire.
Knife crime is one of the great scourges of our time, yet the sentences imposed for it are often pathetically weak.
If there was a mandatory five-year minimum jail term for possessing a knife on the streets, we suspect the figures would fall dramatically. Yes, there would be howls of outrage from the BBC and sections of the London press, but the Government needs to be stronger in the face of such criticism.
