Police Commissioners: Dhanda and Batson?

Rupi Dhanda and Sherma Batson have both been selected to stand as regional Police Chiefs by the Labour Party. The Party selected 42 candidates to stand in the forth coming elections to elect the country's first newly elected Police and Crime Commissioners.

Rupi Dhanda a lawyer and wife of former Gloucester MP Parmjit will lead Labour's fight for the role in Gloucestershre. She said:

I am deeply concerned at the recent steep increase in crime across our county coinciding with cuts to nearly 200 front line police officers. Gloucestershire is facing unprecedented cuts to police on our streets and to staff in the 'back office' too.

Sherma Batson won the nomination in Hertfordshire. Ms Batson was a member of Hertfordshire Police Authority from 2005 to 2009. While there, she helped establish the Authority's Diversity Engagement Forum.

After leaving the post she was elected elected chair of the forum by authority members. In this role, she contributed to shaping policing priorities through a dialogue between the authority and the constabulary. Sherma previously served as a Hertfordshire County Councillor and is now a Stevenage Borough.

We wish these women both very well. It will be a very tough job on a number of levels.

As all the candidates begin to take their place for these elections in November, BME organisations and communities must start to think about shaping the policy agenda to ensure we have local forces that work for us, not against. If we’re not involved in the debate we’ll become scapegoats for the ‘hang em and flog em’ brigade.

Simon Woolley