Looking forward to starting work

The reason that I’m not daunted by the responsibility that goes with the job is because I know that there are a lot of very good people I will be working with and I intend to make full use of their knowledge and experience. Before I can get my teeth into the role proper there are a number of managerial tasks to be sorted over which I have no choice. I have to submit a budget by the end of January, I have to get the five year plan underway and I need to start the process of recruiting a chief executive. I’ll aim to get those done as quickly as possible but it may be the New Year before I can get out and about as much as I would like, and that is how I intend to do this job.

The lessons I have drawn from the election are these. I believe that there was a strongly expressed sentiment that people do not want to see party politics too closely involved in policing. Many spoiled ballot papers had those words written across them. I was disappointed but not surprised by the low turnout. The government did a poor job of promoting a flagship policy. However, I am not going to allow that to affect the way I approach my role. Policing is done by consent in Britain and that means that the wishes of the people need to be unambiguously conveyed to our police and they need to understand what is required of them. That has not changed. That process now needs to happen through me. It is my responsibility to ensure that I listen to a representative cross section of our communities and that I faithfully convey those views to the police. The low turnout will not stop me from doing that.

Elections tend to be divisive, and differences get highlighted in order to attract votes. That process is now behind us and I know that we all now need to focus on what we all want-reducing crime and antisocial behaviour in Warwickshire. I won’t be complacent but the trends are in the right direction and I intend to continue or even hopefully improve on that.

Finally, I’d like to pay tribute to the work done by Mr Phil Robson and his colleagues on the police authority over the years. They have struggled with reducing budgets yet still managed to reduce the crime figures in Warwickshire. I’m hoping to convince a number of those members to sit with me on a voluntary and temporary basis to ensure that the handover goes smoothly. We will also shortly be losing the services of our excellent current chief executive Mr Oliver Winters who retires in December. I’d like to thank them both for their service and wish them well in retirement.

This is a radical and significant change to policing and crime reduction arrangements. In my experience whether changes like this work is not down to structures, but down to whether people make them work. I’m going to need to work closely with the chief constable and many other people in different fields. The reason that I’m confident that these new arrangements will work is because so many of the people I have met share my determination that they will. - Ron Ball, Independent Police & Crime Commissioner For Warwickshire