New Police & Crime Commissioner gets down to business

David Keane, who commenced in office on 12 May, spent time in the force’s control centre, listening in to 101 and 999 calls, before moving on to Middlewich where he spent time with a response team before undertaking foot patrol with the local Chief Inspector; that night he accompanied a police unit in Warrington to better understand the challenges when policing the Warrington pub and bar scene.

“It’s about understanding the complexity of modern policing”, said Mr Keane. “Spending part of my morning listening to calls from people in distress, I’d like to recognise the call takers who do a wonderful job providing reassurance to victims in very challenging circumstances. I was amazed by the complexity of issues the call handlers had to deal with, and the split second decisions they were making.

“Likewise, when I accompanied the response team in Middlewich I was impressed with how well trained officers dealt with very challenging calls, and the professionalism that they showed. At the same time, much of policing is about being visible and approachable, so walking the beat with the local Chief Inspector was very useful as building proper neighbourhood policing is one of my pledges.

“Finally, the hours I spent late on Friday night walking in some of the busier areas of my hometown, Warrington, enabled me to understand better the issues facing our communities in busy night life areas, and how police are tackling these.”

Mr Keane is spending his first days meeting officers and police staff, before embarking on a ‘listening’ tour of the county where he will be listening to the views of the Cheshire public, businesses and visitors on how policing can better meet their needs.

“I’m determined to get out and about to listen to the views of the public, community leaders, businesses and so on, building on the pledges that I made during the election to build neighbourhood policing, get more police officers on our streets, and to improve community engagement. I will be announcing in the next couple of weeks a series of ‘listening’ events over the summer and autumn, to help shape my Police and Crime Plan.”