Voters in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough will get the chance to choose a police and crime commissioner (PCC) for the region on 2 May.
Cambridge residents will also have the opportunity to elect city councillors, with a third of the seats up for grabs across 14 wards.
Conservative candidates have won every PCC election in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough – with Labour as the main challenger – since the role was created in 2012.
Labour has controlled Cambridge City Council for the past 10 years and it currently holds a majority of 25.
Incumbent PCC Darryl Preston, who was first elected in 2021, is standing for re-election on a Conservative ticket, while Anna Smith is Labour’s choice and Edna Murphy has been selected for the Lib Dems.
Mr Preston is a retired Cambridgeshire police detective. He is also the National Association of Police and Crime Commissioners’ lead for forensics and biometrics.
He is hoping for a second term in the £73,000-a-year post.
“It has been an honour and a privilege to serve as the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Police and Crime Commissioner for the last three years.
“I have spent my life protecting the public and if elected on 2 May I will continue to keep all our communities safer,” he said.
Cambridge City Councillor Smith (Coleridge) is a former teacher and deputy mayor of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority. Cllr Smith was also acting mayor last year when mayor Dr Nik Johnson took leave for an operation.
She said: “Despite their rhetoric, the Conservatives are soft on crime and soft on crime prevention.
“Across our country they’ve lost control of antisocial behaviour, and knife crime has gone up 70 per cent since 2015.
“I am determined to work with the police and the public to tackle head-on the issues we all face, from antisocial behaviour to dangerous driving, from violence against women and girls to drug dealing, knife crime and gangs.”
Cllr Murphy (Bar Hill) is a former magistrate, Cambridgeshire County Council member and chair of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fire Authority.
She served as a magistrate in Cambridge for more than 25 years, including many years chairing the Youth Court.
“I’ll fight not just for fair funding but also for smarter spending, moving away from policies that don’t work to reduce crime, such as short prison sentences for non-violent offenders, and towards solutions that truly make us safer by making it less likely that any of us will be victims of crime in the future.
“I’ll champion effective crime reduction strategies such as restorative justice, tackling prolific offenders, and evidence-driven policing. Above all, I’ll ensure that the police are proactive and treat victims with respect, not just as statistics.”
PCCs aim to cut crime and deliver an effective and efficient police service within their police force area. They are elected by the public to hold chief constables and the police force to account on their behalf.
If you are eligible to vote and are registered to vote in an area that has a PCC, you can vote in the police and crime commissioner elections.
Voters are reminded of the need to bring photo ID to the polling station to be able to vote in person in the local elections this year.
They can take a variety of different photo identification in order to vote, including passport, driver’s licence, blue badge, older or disabled person’s bus pass, and Proof of Age Standards Scheme (PASS) card.
Anyone without an otherwise acceptable form of ID can apply for a Voter Authority Certificate either online (at gov.uk/apply-for-photo-id-voter-authority-certificate) or by post. This is a free photo ID document issued for the specific purpose of voting at a polling station.
The deadline to apply for a Voter Authority Certificate for the elections on 2 May is 5pm on Wednesday, 24 April.
Residents who have not yet registered to vote in the local elections on 2 May are urged to do so before this year’s deadline. You can register to vote online up until 11.59pm on Tuesday, 16 April.
