Essex PFCC election: Who is standing?

An election to choose the next police and crime commissioner (PFCC) for Essex will take place on 2 May.

The PFCC's role is to hold the local police and fire services to account, setting budgets and deciding how much council tax precept to charge.

Following a law change last year, people who vote in person on 2 May will have to remember to bring a form of photo ID with them.

The candidates below are listed in alphabetical order by surname.

A report into the state of policing by the Chief Inspector of the Constabulary in 2022 found Essex Police performance was rated "good" for treatment towards the public, but "required improvement" in responding and was "adequate" at crime prevention.

Nearly two-thirds of people had “overall confidence” in Essex Police according to the latest local survey, external.

A report for the PFCC’s office noted “annual comparisons show a significant decrease in confidence”. It had dropped by 4% between September 2022 and 2023.

Fewer than half of respondents, 46%, felt Essex Police are dealing with crime and anti-social behaviour in their area – a fall from 51% a year before.

For those who felt Essex Police were not doing an excellent or good job of tackling crime: 27% said it was because of police visibility, 17% because of accessibility and response.

47% of victims of crime were satisfied with the response from Essex Police.

The survey said the majority of women and minority groups felt “unsafe” walking alone after dark.

Essex Fire Service responds to 82% of all incidents within 15 minutes in 2022-23. A report earlier this year found “the service doesn’t meet its own standards” of responding to 90% of all incidents in this time.

Essex County Fire and Rescue Service "required improvement" at responding to fires and other emergencies, a recent inspection found. It was one of six areas that required improvement whilst three were rated good, external and one adequate.

A recent report found there have been issues with the number of fire appliances available for callouts.

Fewer than half the number of home fire safety checks had been carried out in Essex, compared to the average in England in the year ending March 2023.

Adam Fox, 40, has lived in Colchester for 20 years and was the deputy leader of the city council.

Mr Fox says the role was "first and foremost about more visible neighbourhood policing and more officers out on the beat", with "hotspots that need those officers to tackle anti-social behaviour".

"If Labour forms the next government there will be 13,000 additional officers across the country and that would mean 250 new officers for Essex".

Mr Fox said policing numbers in Essex had returned to 2010 levels but the force had "lost experienced officers" and had not "kept pace with population growth".

He said he would direct "more resources to victim services and addressing the behaviour and culture that allows some of that male violence to exist and persist" towards women.

Kieron Franks, 23, is a Chelmsford city councillor and said he is standing “mainly to have more of an impact on the welfare and feelings of safety for young people and women".

"Disastrously few people feel safe at night," Mr Franks said, adding that "poor dialogue" with the police meant "young people don’t feel cared about".

His pledge is to "take the things that are working well, like the women’s safety charter in Chelmsford, and work on that partnership approach" across Essex, to "make people feel genuinely that the police work for them".

Mr Franks said he would use "resources effectively, making sure there is more local police presence".

"Too many people feel that they aren’t listened to when they report things to the police and that nothing gets investigated when they report thefts and vandalism," he said.

Roger Hirst, 63, worked in the city for 35 years and served as a cabinet member on Essex County Council.

He was first elected PFCC in 2016 and is seeking a third term.

Mr Hirst says he was halfway through a 10-year drug and knife crime reduction programme which has seen hospital admissions drop by 25% since 2019 and knife murders fall by 70% since 2016.

"Give me another four years and my ambition is to get crime down across the county by 40%," Mr Hirst said.

He said he wanted to improve road and fire safety with the aim of "zero deaths" on Essex roads by 2040 as well as "a vision for zero house fire deaths" with a focus on vulnerable people.

Robin Tilbrook, 65, a solicitor from Ongar, is the leader of the English Democrats.

He says his party position is "against political correctness and a focus on doing the job rather than social engineering". He would increase visibility of police in the community.

He says he would "stop our police budget being used to fund gay pride events and other political correctness and instead focus on delivering more police, catching criminals".

Mr Tilbrook says "officers should not be spying on social media posts" and he would "ensure budgets are spent on frontline policing and not on politically correct projects".

As PFCC he would "scrap diversity targets and ensure that the best qualified candidates get awarded the job".

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