New police commissioner pledges to get more officers on the beat

Conservative Donna Jones is the newly elected police and crime commissioner for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

The former Portsmouth City Council leader won the election race with 312,993 votes.

Labour candidate Tony Bunday came second with 145,751 votes.

It comes as Liberal Democrat Richard Murphy and independent Steve James-Bailey were eliminated after first preferences were counted.

Ms Jones pledged to do a complete overhaul of the 101 and 999 services and to deliver 600 police officers across the county.

She also committed to removing bureaucracy allowing officers to be on patrol.

She said: “This is going to be paid for by the general elections pledge by the Conservative Party from 2019 to recruit 20,000 police officers nationally. In Hampshire we estimate that it’s going to be about 450 and additional officers will be given money from the Safer Streets Fund and the Specialist Violence Reduction Unit and I anticipate that funding continuing so we should end up with around 600 additional police officers.”

She confirmed that Bitterne Police Station in Southampton is going to reopen and added: “I need to do a complete review of police estates. The current police estates strategy was formulated around six years ago so it does need reviewing.”

When asked how she will increase police visibility across Hampshire, Ms Jones added: “By reducing bureaucracy, by less time spent in police stations writing reports and more time policing the streets.”

She said her predecessor Conservative Michael Lane invested “well” in youth services and she would like to carry on.

She added: “The best way to bring crime down is to stop young people getting involved with crime in the first place.”

She also previously said to make anti-social behaviour a priority and to spend more money on youth services.

Labour candidate Tony Bunday came second.

He said: “We very significantly increased the Labour votes and I feel very pleased with that, I feel very grateful for the support I have been given. We have probably done better than we expected.”

He said the results reflect national results and added that he would like to see the new PCC tackle drug-related crime and violence against women.