Warwick postgraduate stands in Police and Crime Commissioner election

A series of local elections are set to take place across the country this Thursday. Ben Twomey, a postgraduate student at Warwick, is one of the candidates for the position of Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) in Warwickshire.

The role of Police and Crime Commissioner is a relatively new one. Created in 2012 by the coalition government, the position replaces the previous model of local police authorities and is broadly responsible for holding the Chief Constable and the police force to account on behalf of the public.

Mr Twomey, who is running as an independent candidate, is currently studying a postgraduate Law degree at Warwick, with a focus on human rights.

Having already worked in the offices of the Durham and Warwickshire PCCs in the meantime though, he has implored voters not to “mistake [his] youth for inexperience.”

Turnout at the inaugural PCC elections in 2012 hit lows of between 10-20%.

He adds on his campaign website that he has a “straightforward” approach to supporting the police, which focuses on “developing problem-solving policies, based on hard evidence”. Mr Twomey also recently told the Leamington Courier that he plans to “keep party-politics out of policing”.

The other candidates include ones from all the major political parties, such as Julie Anne Jackson for the Labour Party and Philip Stanley Seccombe for the Conservatives and Unionists.

Should he be elected, Ben Twomey will be the youngest Police and Crime Commissioner to date.

Turnout at the inaugural PCC elections in 2012 hit lows of between 10-20%, so Students’ Union (SU) sabbatical officers such as Democracy and Development Officer Olly Rice have been encouraging people via Facebook to sign up and vote online.

However, student engagement is always difficult, with Marian Butnaru, a first-year English and Hispanic Studies student, remarking that he “hadn’t really heard” about the elections taking place.

Should he be elected, Ben Twomey will be the youngest Police and Crime Commissioner to date.