Below is the candidate profile for Dr Tony Kearon, the Labour and Co-operative Party candidate for the Staffordshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner election.
This profile has been added to our Candidate Profiles page on our 2021 election hub – click here to see more candidate profiles.
Answers to the questions aren’t edited, other than for formating, and are therefore the candidates own words.
In your own words tell our readers about yourself
I live in the Stone parliamentary constituency area with my family. I’m a criminologist, with over 20 years experience of working with police forces, fire services, councils, businesses and local community groups to reduce crime, disorder and anti-social behaviour and deliver safer communities. I have chaired a successful community safety partnership, and have been involved in domestic homicide reviews and reviews of attempted homicides. I have worked with a wide range of victims of crimes from business crime and burglary to domestic violence and sexual assault. Work that I have done for the Home Office and College of Policing on partnership work to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour is now in the national police library for use by police forces across the country. One of my key concerns is improving partnership working, helping a range of organisations and agencies to play their part in supporting communities, helping to prevent crime and anti-social behaviour and freeing up the police to focus on tackling crime.
What’s your personal statement about why you’re standing and what you want to achieve over the term if elected?
For the last few years my community activism has focussed on the local area where I live with my family. But I decided to put myself forward for this County wide role because I became increasingly disturbed and frustrated by what I was seeing in my day job as a criminologist – police officers, firefighters and other public servants increasingly over-stretched and asked to do more and more; brilliant enthusiastic people helping and supporting young people, vulnerable adults, victims of crime and excluded communities but increasingly hampered by shrinking budgets and staff cuts; a growing number of communities feeling ignored and side-lined, and increasingly concerned about crime and anti-social behaviour. The final straw for me was when I was analysing Home Office figures on police funding. At the end of the 3 year ‘uplift’ in police numbers, Staffordshire will still have at least 10% fewer police officers than we had in 2010. The funding for police recruitment is not being shared out fairly – police forces across the South-East will come out of the uplift with real increases in police numbers – Surrey will end up with at least 15% more officers than they had in 2010. The tax we pay is being used to put extra police on the streets – the trouble is it’s the streets of Surrey, not the streets of Staffordshire.
My priorities for my term of office:
- To fight for a fair deal for Staffordshire, so that a fair share of the tax we already pay comes back to Staffordshire to fund our services.
- To fight for a proper increase in police and firefighter numbers and in the essential staff that support their work, and to invest in the equipment they need to do their job.
- To get agencies across Staffordshire working in partnership to get things done effectively, to intervene early to prevent problems and free up police and firefighters to focus on their core duties.
- To reduce crime and anti-social behaviour in our communities.
- To help Staffordshire residents to feel safer and more secure in their homes and communities.
I will fight to get the good quality services we deserve and already pay for, and make it my priority to keep you, your family and our communities safe.
How does standing as a political party candidate affect serving local people on local issues?
I am a long standing member of both the Labour Party and the Co-operative Party. I think it is important to be honest and up front about that. But I have no intention whatsoever of treating this role as a party political football, or a springboard to a seat in Parliament or to use this role to try to score cheap party political points. Keeping our communities safe is too important a task to be reduced to any of these. I have worked under both a Labour led and a Conservative led Home Office and Ministry of Justice. I have collaborated with police commissioners and councils of every political persuasion. I have worked with a wide range of communities over the years without being concerned what party their local councillors and MP belong to. If elected I will be a commissioner for EVERY resident and every community across Staffordshire without fear or favour. We cannot have a two-tier Staffordshire based on the political map, and with me as Commissioner every community will be listened to and taken seriously, and they will get the help and support they need regardless of politics.
What’s been your history as a political councillor?
I first stood for election as a borough councillor in 2011 because I was campaigning for a pedestrian crossing to get mine and other children safely to their primary school across a busy main road. I was elected and kept this and other election promises. I was subsequently asked to become the cabinet member for community safety for Newcastle borough council – a position I held for 5 years. My time in that role is an example of what I would bring to the Commissioner role – I worked with the police, fire service and a range of other agencies to reduce anti-social behaviour, burglary, car crime and a wide range of other issues. Resident’s satisfaction with how the police, council and other agencies were responding to their concerns improved, I worked with all political parties and every community across the borough got a fair share of the funding and support it needed to tackle issues.
Apart from family commitments what other commitments do you have on your time? This could be work, business, voluntary or community roles – if these are linked to organisations in Stone then please mention it.
If elected as commissioner, this will be my entire focus. I will step down from my council seat and will stop my work as a criminologist.
What are the top 5 issues that you think affect the residents of Stone currently have?
A number of Stone residents have contacted me to raise concerns about what is happening in the area. I will continue to listen to residents and take their concerns seriously. At present the following issues keep coming up:
- Crime and disorder in the centre of Stone.
- Issues with drug and alcohol misuse around the town centre (connected to 1).
- Anti-social behaviour in the residential areas around Stone town centre.
- A lack of facilities and activities for young people.
- Vandalism, graffiti and fly tipping
Explain in your own words what the role of the PFCC is and why it’s important.
The role of Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner does not seem to be a particularly high profile or well known job. But it has a major impact on the safety of Staffordshire residents. The commissioner is responsible for Staffordshire Police and Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service, and has to deliver and maintain an efficient and effective police service and fire service. The commissioner has the power to appoint the Chief Constable and Chief Fire Officer, hold them to account for the operation of the two services on behalf of Staffordshire residents and (if needs be) dismiss them. The commissioner has to set priorities and targets for crime and policing, community safety and fire safety for Staffordshire. They also set the budgets for the police and fire services and set the precept for each service (the share of council tax paid by residents that goes to each service). The commissioner also distributes community safety funding across Staffordshire and brings together community safety and criminal justice partners, to make sure that the various agencies are working together effectively to reduce and prevent crime and disorder and support victims.
