CLEVELAND Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Steve Turner celebrates his first year in office on 13 May 2022.
Steve was elected to office on Thursday 6 May 2021 and started in role the following week. He is only the second-ever elected PCC for Cleveland.
Since taking office, Steve has represented Cleveland at national level as Joint Portfolio Holder for Serious Violence for the Association of PCCs (APCCs.)
Closer to home, his first year has featured a number of key milestones. They have included the following:
- Appointed Mark Webster as new Chief Constable of Cleveland Police following the departure of Richard Lewis. Mr Webster started in role last month.
- Published his first Police and Crime Plan outlining 10 priorities to put the Pride Back into Cleveland Police and make Cleveland a safer place to live, work and visit
- Secured £3.5m in Government funding over the next three years for a new Violence Reduction Unit (VRU)
- Established a new-look, complaints team, in which staff from the PCC’s office now handle most public complaints about policing in Cleveland
- Hosted visits from senior political leaders including Home Secretary Priti Patel and Policing Minister Kit Malthouse
- Secured an additional £750k-worth of national funding for victims services and projects to reduce offending behaviour
- Invested more than £53,574 in community organisations to help reduce violence with a further £30,839 in grants to tackle antisocial behaviour
- Secured £650k in Home Office Safer Streets funding to help areas most at-risk of crime across Cleveland
- Attracted 1,200 responses to a public survey on feelings of safety among women and girls. This was used to inform a successful funding bid.
- Established monthly surgeries at community venues throughout Cleveland and took part in a number of community events including 2021’s Festival of Thrift and Middlesbrough Mela
- Appointed Lisa OIdroyd as Cleveland OPCC’s first female Chief Executive
A massive challenge
Steve said: “I have really enjoyed the job. It has been a massive challenge although I did know it was going to be a big challenge when I came into the role.
“Myself and my team have achieved some fantastic things in my first 12 months in office and I am really proud of that.
“However, when you start getting into the detail of why some of the problems exist, you realise there aren’t any easy solutions.
“A lot of the things, which we are doing now, are going to take time to put right.
“However, I am determined that the criminals won’t win and Cleveland will become a safer, more unified place to live, work, visit and study.”
As a result of the pandemic, Steve’s first term in office is for a period of three years. The next PCC election takes place in May 2024.
More to come……
Key commitments
However, before then, Steve has a number of key commitments to deliver. They include:
- The introduction of Cleveland’s first policing app
- Building a closer working relationship with the Probation Service. Plans include increasing the number of high quality, unpaid work opportunities for people, who have offended
- Increasing engagement with businesses throughout Cleveland
- Greater use of technology to combat crime including the increased use of drones and latest digital investigation tools
- Setting up Cleveland’s first Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) to tackle serious violence
- The launch of a new and improved victim service, which will include greater opportunities to use restorative justice and reduce offending
- Providing a location-based youth outreach support across Cleveland
- Encourage greater use of the Community Trigger so all agencies can work together to tackle antisocial behaviour head-on
- Embracing new opportunities related to the PCC’s role to work with partners to tackle crime and antisocial behaviour.
Steve said: “I want to keep up the momentum and continue with the scale and pace of change, which I believe will benefit everyone in Cleveland.”