Darryl Preston, Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough
Cambridgeshire Police Federation chair Liz Groom has congratulated Darryl Preston on being re-elected as Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
A former police officer with Cambridgeshire and the Met, Darryl has been PCC since May 2021 and will officially start his second term of office on Thursday (9 May).
Darryl, who stood for the Conservatives, received a total of 61,688 votes representing 38.1 per cent of the votes while the Labour candidate secured 58,304 votes (36 per cent).
He said: “I am absolutely delighted to have been re-elected as PCC for the people of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. It is an honour and a privilege to be able to continue in the role keeping all our communities safe.”
While campaigning for re-election, he pledged to continue to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour by investing in more visible local policing and said he would further invest in prevention, particularly aimed at keeping your people out of the criminal justice system. The PCC also set out to curb domestic and sexual violence and to tackle both rural crime and injuries and deaths on the roads.
Responding to the election result, Liz said: “We congratulate Darryl on being re-elected as our PCC and look forward to meeting him in the coming weeks so that we can discuss his plans for policing our communities.
“We have always enjoyed a good working relationship with him and have met at regular meetings. As a former officer, we feel he just gets it. Darryl was particularly supportive as we tried to secure the South East Allowance for our officers.
“During the run-up to the election, he did make a point of saying that we now have 400 more officers than we did in 2015, but I think that there needs to be an acknowledgement that boosting officer numbers is only part of the solution to the crisis in policing during the last few years.
“We now need to make sure that forces have the infrastructure in place for those officers – the right number of police bases, the right equipment and the right support for officers.
“The latest pay and morale survey carried out by the Police Federation revealed one in five of our members plan to quit policing in the next five years due to low morale and dissatisfaction with the Government and pay.
“So, it’s obviously great news that our officer numbers are up, but it’s not good if as fast as we recruit new officers, we are losing many of our experienced ones. More has to be done to retain officers and ensuring they are paid fairly for the unique and often dangerous role they carry out would be a start.”
Liz added: “Politicians need to sit up and take note of what police officers are saying and I think PCCs have a role to play in speaking up for them and making sure their voice is heard.”