PCC ELECTION: Labour Candidate Kerry Barker's Responses To Our Questions

 

Kerry Barker Labour PCC Candidate

Somerset Independents is not standing a candidate in the Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner Election 2021. More information on our decision, and information on all candidates, are in our updated article here.

Instead, we are holding all of the candidates to account and challenging them to answer the questions that residents want answered.

We have asked questions to all 5 candidates. Some of the questions are the same for all candidates. The other questions are based on what each candidate said in public.

All candidates were asked their questions over the most recent weekend.

Below is the FULL response from Labour Candidate Kerry Barker. He was the first candidate to respond.

They are the opinions of the candidate and NOT Of Somerset Independents.

 

Somerset Independents – Responses of Kerry Barker

Background

First as a justices’ clerk, running magistrates’ courts, and second as a barrister based in Bristol since 1991, working in all courts in Avon and Somerset, I have over 50 years’ experience of criminal justice. I know first-hand how budget cuts and local strategic decisions impact the ability of police officers to do their work; to detect crimes and to keep people safe. The effect of closing police stations, cutting back on officer numbers in local communities and disbanding specialist teams of detectives can be seen in the detection rates for the crimes that affect ordinary people in our region.

Part of my legal practice was to undertake judicial review cases. These cases always involved challenges to public bodies such as the police, local authorities, and central government departments. I am very used to challenging the decisions of public bodies and holding them to account.

1. Mrs Mountstevens – why would you make a better Police and Crime Commissioner?

The primary purpose of the PCC is to hold the police to account on behalf of the public. Mrs Mountstevens has failed to do this. Most people regard her as a spokesperson for the police.

The consequence has been that even when she has upheld complaints against the police – as individual members of the Labour Party have told me that she has in their own cases – the police have ignored her rulings.

The Nolan principles apply to all office holders and all public bodies. The fact that you stood as an independent makes no difference. Unfortunately, “keeping politics out of policing” means that you don’t campaign against political decisions such as cuts to police budgets and other unpopular laws that place unnecessary burdens on the police.

I will hold the police to account, but I will also campaign for better resources for them and for other public services in order to reduce the burden on police officers. They should not have to be social workers. They should not have to be mental health nurses.

2. BBC Hustings – could I do better than John Smith?

In the example that you gave quoting what I said, the interviewer cut me off before I had finished dealing with the failure of the police to catch criminals. The full statement should read:

“If you ask people what is the purpose of the Police they’ll tell you it is to prevent crime and catch criminals, and that is the test, the last nine years has been a disaster because crime has gone up but he detection rate has gone rapidly down and so if you look at things like violent and sexual crime, in 2012 there were just under 18,000 offences reported to the police and the detection rate was just under 50% …”

I later added words to the effect of:

“ … 2012 was the year that the PCC was first elected. By 2019 the number of violent and sexual offences had soared to over 47,000 but the detection rate had fallen to 12%.”

As a criminal barrister who specialised in abuse cases and who was a specialist rape prosecutor I knew that the PCC and Chief Constable had agreed, as a strategy, to scrap the specialist teams of detectives and in particular the sexual assaults team. I discussed it with them at the time of the last PCC election and warned them of the devastating consequences of disbanding that team.

Regrettably my warnings proved to be accurate. As a force the expertise of that team was lost. Experienced detectives became disillusioned and left the force. The so-called omni-competent teams of detectives failed to support victims and collect evidence in the way that the old specialist team had, and the detection rate crashed down to 12%.

2(a) Where do you think John Smith as Deputy PCC/Chief Executive has gone wrong?

Of course, John Smith was always the power behind the throne. He was behind the centralisation of police services and the scrapping of the specialist teams. He now claims to be able to prioritise the safety of girls and women whilst his record shows that he did just the opposite.

I promise to reinstate the specialist teams of detectives, but it will take time to retrain and build up the experience that those lost officers had.

The whole notion of centralising police services, closing police stations was a modern trend followed without real thought for the consequences. Just as was the involvement of Avon and Somerset Police in the doomed ‘SouthWest 1’ fiasco.

With each closure came the claim that the police would be more effective and more efficient. It is not effective policing to have to take an arrested person from Frome to Bridgwater or Keynsham or Bristol (Patchway) thus removing at least two officers from the area they were policing for a number of hours. When they remove the cells from Yeovil police station – as is proposed – the same will apply there.

The best policing is based upon intelligence. Local intelligence gathered by local police officers who know their patch and know their people. And where the local people know them.

Reducing local policing to 1.7 police officers per 10,000 population (Parliamentary Report on Funding of Community Policing 2017) is not best policing.

The public lose confidence in local policing when police stations are closed. Information desks in council offices or libraries or fire stations are not police stations. Information desks which close at 5 pm are not police stations. Information desks are not places of refuge for women attacked by their partners during the night.

In all these areas John Smith has got it wrong.

The detection rate for rural crime such as thefts from farms is only 4%. That is the result of the policies set by Mrs Mountstevens and John Smith.

2(b) Did Mrs Mountstevens appoint Mr Smith as her deputy in the right way?

It is quite clear that Mrs Mountstevens appointed Mr Smith as her deputy in order to give him a platform from which to campaign for election. Indeed, Mrs Mountstevens has herself been campaigning for Mr Smith. Just ask any of the residents’ associations that she has addressed in recent months.

Ask any serving police officer and they will, without exception, tell you that John Smith has used his office to conduct his campaign.

And they talk about keeping politics out of policing. They have been doing little else but politicking during the past twelve months.

It is also clear that the Chief Constable was seduced into giving Mr Smith a personal endorsement completely against the rules governing the involvement of Chief Constables in the election of PCCs. In years past when public standards were so much higher that might have been a resigning issue.

3. Making better use of existing resources and getting more money for policing. What would you prefer money spent on – police being on the beat or police buildings?

As I have set out above having a local police station gives confidence to members of the public about local police operations.

The local police station is not just a building it is the location for the local command structure. It is where local police officers are based. Where the area commander is based – not in distant Portishead but in your area. It is where the local detectives are based.

My strategy will be to have a local command structure for each of the 8 local authority districts comprised in the Avon and Somerset area. That way the police will also be accountable to local councillors and the local MPs. That way public complaints will be taken much more seriously.

You say that I haven’t said where I would get the money from. That is not true. At each Labour party meeting and each public meeting that I have addressed I have raised the issue of local funding. In addition to raising the local precept in accordance with government imposed limits the PCC can seek greater increases through the medium of a local referendum. Mrs Mountstevens and her office refused to engage with such a process.

Where it can be justified, I will campaign for additional resources and identify exactly how and where any additional funds will be spent.

And, if elected I will always be responsible for the budget in accordance with my statutory duty.

4. Publicly elected office holders who do not pay their taxes.

I do not believe that office holders be they councillors or others appointed, as opposed to being elected, should be allowed to continue in those offices if they have not paid their taxes – either local or national taxes.

I agree that all elected officials should have to undergo criminal records checks – just as I have always had to do for being a school governor or a trustee of a charity.

Kerry Barker

Labour Party Candidate for Police and Crime Commissioner for Avon and Somerset