Newport councillor refuses to back down in row over police numbers
Newport's Liberal Democrat group has doubled down on a petition calling for more police in the town after West Mercia's police and crime commissioner John Campion called it misleading and dangerous.
Councillor Thomas Janke said he was tired of the town "getting the thin end of the wedge" when it came to police officers.
He said there are only 8.5 bobbies on the beat per 100,000 in the West Mercia region, a number Mr Campion strongly rejects.
Mr Campion said the number of frontline police officers is actually about 160 more per 100,000 and called on Councillor Janke to remove his petition.
However, Councillor Janke insisted: "We stand by our petition. This is not a political stunt.
"As a local councillor and a Newport resident, I am sick and tired of Newport getting the thin end of the wedge.
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"We have used documented figures for bobbies on the beat, and these chime with concerns I hear from residents on the doorstep day-in-day-out.
"It’s telling that the Conservative PCC is dismissive of this petition. I now request a meeting with John Campion to discuss Newport’s concerns."
Mr Campion said: “If the councillor had discussed this with me, I would have happily explained that I am already delivering on the demands of his petition by adding another 215 police officers in West Mercia.
“I would have explained to him that 40 of these posts are actually based in Telford & Wrekin as part of the new resolution team in the north of the force.
Benefit
“I also would have explained how other additional posts will also benefit Telford & Wrekin, by having to extract fewer officers to help meet demand in parts of Shropshire. This will mean Newport benefits from a significantly increased policing presence, faster emergency responses, increased victim satisfaction and better access to police officers.
“None of this has been possible however, because Councillor Janke seemingly has no interest in seriously engaging with me, fully understanding the subject or properly researching it. The timing and nature of his actions reinforce that this is a quite blatant political stunt ahead of the local elections.”
Mr Campion said he understood the call for more police officers, but that he had already taken action to increase numbers.
“The councillor’s opinions are his own and are not the issue here," he said. "I know our communities want more police officers. I have listened and have already taken clear action on this.
“However, where he is presenting something as a ‘fact’, to try and rally public support he has a responsibility to ensure the public can trust what he is saying. The claims he has publicly associated to his petition around officer numbers are clearly untrue and it is very easy to verify that.
“I have already clarified the errors. He should do the right thing and accept that some of his comments have been both false and misleading, withdraw them, and apologise to the community he serves.
"The longer that takes to happen, the less this can be viewed as a genuine mistake, and the more it becomes a case of deliberately misleading the public.”
