Urgent issues for PCC to address, says Federation chair

7 May 2024

Officer wellbeing, maintaining police numbers and low morale are just three of the key issues that the new Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) must address as a matter of urgency, says the chair of Hertfordshire Police Federation.

Luke Mitchell was commenting after Conservative Jonathan Ash-Edwards was elected as PCC on Thursday, making him only the second person to hold the position since PCCs were first introduced in 2012.

The Force’s previous PCC, fellow Conservative David Lloyd, did not seek re-election after 12 years.

“We congratulate Jonathan on his success in the election and look forward to meeting with him as soon as possible so he can discuss his plans and priorities with us, we have already been in contact with his office to arrange” says Luke.

“But I also hope we get the opportunity to discuss the matters that are affecting our members on a daily basis.

PCC Jonathan Ash-Edwards.

“The latest Federation pay and morale survey showed that one in five of our officers want to quit policing in the next two years which is alarming.

“The Police Uplift Programme, through which 20,000 officers were recruited in the three years up until the end of March last year, meant that our numbers were boosted by 300, but it’s easy to see how poor retention rates could have an impact on the Force.

“We have to look at the issues behind officers wanting to leave and I hope the PCC will be interested in looking into this and taking action that will hopefully address poor morale and boost officer wellbeing.”

Luke added: “Jonathan is joining policing at a critical point, with pressures over finance being a issue over the next few years. While he has suggested he wants officers to be visible, the opposite is in fact happening where officers are replacing police staff roles that can’t be filled so are being placed in desk jobs.”

In Thursday’s PCC elections, Jonathan secured 93,658 votes with his closest rival, Sean Prendergast for the Liberal Democrats, gathering 68,264 votes.

Turn-out was 29.3 per cent, compared to 37.4 per cent at the last election in 2021.