A FORMER police chief has joined the race to become the elected crime commissioner and claims that policing can be improved – despite cuts to spending.
Dr Paul Davidson, a former Chief Superintendent of Humberside Police, has announced his candidacy for the £70,000-a-year post to directly replace the police authority and plans to improve the service by "putting people first".
The independent candidate will face competition from former deputy prime minister John Prescott and Godfrey Bloom, the UKIP MEP for this area, among others in the election on Thursday, November 15.
Dr Davidson, who had an academic career in chemical engineering before joining the police, has served with the force for 30 years, working on high-profile cases such as the murder of student Rachel Moran, from Hull.
He was also a divisional commander of Hull and East Riding too, before retiring a month ago.
His flagship policy is to "investigate every crime" as he did in East Riding, which led to PCSO crime detection rates being the top in the country, reducing the 20 to 30 per cent of uninvestigated crimes to zero.
He claims it can be done, despite the pressure of Government cuts to funding – because he has already done it.
"If you look at the number of crimes and the number of officers, it is possible to investigate every crime – we just have to work differently," he said.
"Some forces have had no drive to do this as there is no competition for service users – you can't ask another force to investigate a crime.
"We need to think cleverly, just as a private company would have to do if their budget was altered.
"Public confidence in the police is very important and talking about resource cuts just makes people believe that they are not going to get a good service.
"The public don't care about these cuts – they just want to know that their crimes are being solved and their streets are safe.
"People say it can't be done when you talk about investigating every single crime. There are always people who say it can't be done but it can, because I have done it."
Dr Davidson's other flagship policies are to come down hard on criminals and say no to privatisation of the police force. And although he worked on the north bank for 30 years, he claims people all over Humberside are his first priority.
He continued: "Having a background in policing allows me to understand issues fully and hit the ground running but it is people that are my priority – I will not be in bed with the police commanders. The police serve the public so their priorities should be the same.
"I want equality of resources in all areas of Humberside which includes rural areas as much as urban areas of deprivation."
He also encouraged people to vote in what he called "the biggest shake-up in policing since Robert Peel introduced the force in 1829".
"I can't highlight how important it is for people to vote as this will have an impact on how areas are policed right down to the street that you live in," he added.
