Tag: G4S

Cambridgeshire Police Commissioner Rejects G4S Option

08:07 Wednesday 30th January 2013
Bigger Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[P]AUL STAINTON: Cambridgeshire Police along with Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire have now decided to pull the plug on a scheme to privatise some of their services through G4S, that private security company. The Police and Crime Commissioners from all three counties met yesterday afternoon to make that final decision. The plan had been to join with Lincolnshire Police as part of outsourcing plans with G4S, that company that failed spectacularly of course to provide sufficient security for the Olympics. Well Ansar Ali ran in the Police Commissioner election. He welcomed the news, but said he was surprised the Commissioner was even considering it in the first place. (TAPE)
ANSAR ALI: I welcome this decision. During the election campaign I said quite forcefully that G4S wasn’t the right route for delivery of policing services in Cambridgeshire. It would be a disaster for the people of Cambridgeshire, and I’m very very pleased that the three Police Commissioners made this decision. (LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: Well I’m pleased to say the Police Commissioner for Cambridgeshire Sir Graham Bright joins us now. Morning Graham.
SIR GRAHAM BRIGHT: Good morning to you.
PAUL STAINTON: A bit of an eleventh hour decision. What’s wrong with G4S? Why not? Continue reading “Cambridgeshire Police Commissioner Rejects G4S Option”

Professor Lawrence Sherman On Police Commissioners

07:52 Wednesday 7th November 2012
Bigger Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: All about elections on the Bigger Breakfast this morning. And just as the excitement drops from the US Presidential election, we get excited again in eight days time, don’t we, for the Police and Crime Commissioners’ elections. What? Seven candidates fighting for your vote. .. Let’s speak to Professor Lawrence Sherman. He’s Director of the Institute of Criminology at Cambridge University. Now I was particularly apathetic in my cue there because somebody texted in yesterday and said “apart from you mentioned it on your show, and Andy Harper mentioned it“, he’s not seen a thing. No posters, no people, nobody knocking on his doors, and that’s a bit of a problem, isn’t it?
LAWRENCE SHERMAN: Yes. There is a website, with a lot of information, BBC Radio Cambridgeshire has one, so does the Home Office. And the positions of these seven candidates are spelled out, and I think they’re really important policy issues that people ought to pay attention to. For example, if they don’t want to have their police department outsourced to G4S, which is one of the issues the candidates address. Continue reading “Professor Lawrence Sherman On Police Commissioners”

Paul Bullen UKIP for Police Commissioner

08:35 Wednesday 18th July 2012
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: A magistrate is to stand for election to become the Police and Crime Commissioner in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. Paul Bullen, who sits at Huntingdon Magistrates Court, has been announced as the UKIP candidate for the election in November. We can talk to him now. .. Why? Why are you standing?
PAUL BULLEN: We as a party, as you probably know, do not believe that we need Police and Crime Commissioners. We believe in an elected authority, or committee, to oversee the running of the police.
PAUL STAINTON: Well that’s a bit silly then, isn’t it? There’s no point standing. Continue reading “Paul Bullen UKIP for Police Commissioner”

Julian Huppert on G4S and the Cambridgeshire Police Contract

17:07 Tuesday 17th July 2012
Drive BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: We start tonight with news about G4S, the company at the centre of the Olympic security shambles, and the same firm inline to take over the admin. of Cambridgeshire Police force. They’ve been named as the preferred bidder by our county’s Police Authority. But tonight, that potential deal is under intense scrutiny. It follows a humiliating appearance in front of the Home Affairs Select Committee by the Chief Executive of G4S, Nick Buckles, who said he was sorry for failing to provide thousands of promised guards for the Olympic Games, bust insisted, to the astonishment of many watching, that he still intended to claim his management fee of £57 million. He was questioned closely by Cambridge MP Julian Huppert, a member of the Committee, on a further failure by his firm, just today, when only 30 security staff turned up for an Olympic task, when 200 were contracted for. Continue reading “Julian Huppert on G4S and the Cambridgeshire Police Contract”

Policing and Profit

07:22 Friday 29th June 2012
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: Cambridgeshire Police are to look at outsourcing some back office services. The county’s Police Authority approved a move at a meeting last night, but said officers need to look at other ways too to make savings. Along with forces in Besfordshire, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire, they’ve all got to make savings of about £73 million by 2016. It’s thought bringing in private companies to run services like finance, HR and IT might help them do that. Our reporter Natasha Malcolm-Brown has been speaking to Chief Constable Simon Parr. She started by asking how realistic it was to think cuts wouldn’t now affect front line services. Continue reading “Policing and Profit”