On November 15th 2012, for the first time, we will be able to vote for our local police and crime commissioner (PCC).
This is a new role, and the job of the PCC will be to oversee the police and ensure they are prioritising what matters to local people. Elections will be taking place in all of our local areas.
According to an article published recently in the Leicester Mercury, only a tiny fraction of voters could name the three candidates in next week’s election of Leicestershire’s first police and crime commissioner.
The Leicester Mercury questioned 150 people in the city centre to assess public awareness of next week’s vote. Just eight of the 150 could name the three candidates – Sir Clive Loader (Conservative), Sarah Russell (Labour) and Suleman Nagdi (Independent).
So, with just a week to go, if you’re keen to find out more, we thought we’d try to help by pointing you to some relevant websites:
Neighbourhood Watch have been very good about keeping people informed and encouraging people to go to meetings about the PCC elections.
The official website Choose My PCC offers more information about the role of a PCC and the local candidates
Each of the candidates also has their own websites. For the Leicestershire candidates see:
www.sarah4pcc.co.uk for Sarah Russell http://clive4leicspcc.com/ for Sir Clive Loader http://www.nagdi.co.uk/ for Suleman Nagdi
If you live over the border in Warwicksire, you can find out more about your candidates by following the links from the Choose My PCC website.
We'll all have differing opinions about the PCC role and its political implications, but we think it's important to vote when given the opportunity and would encourage you to do so.
