Lib Dem call for more community focused policing

Jane Dodds says her party does not want non-elected deputy commissioners

Police forces need to be more accountable to the communities they serve and open about their performance, the Welsh Liberal Democrat leader has said.

Jane Dodds said forces should be "listening to their communities" and be "in their communities" responding to their needs.

She was speaking to BBC Radio Wales, ahead of the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) elections on 2 May.

Although they do not run police day- to-day, commissioners set priorities for the police and their budgets.

There are four PCCs in Wales - one for each police force area - Dyfed Powys, Gwent, North Wales and South Wales.

Lib Dem candidates, as is the case with the other three main parties in Wales, are standing for all four posts.

Ms Dodds also told Radio Wales Breakfast that police needed to respond better to cases of stalking, which "can lead on to further violence, and we want to see better responses on domestic violence as well".

Marking Stalking Awareness Week in the Senedd, this week, she said "effective multi-agency co-ordination and investment in comprehensive training for police, prosecutors and judges" was needed to "finally deliver justice for victims".

Earlier this month, UK Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey called for Police and Crime Commissioners to be scrapped, and the money saved put into "improving frontline policing".

Ms Dodds, a Senedd member for Mid and West Wales, would not be drawn on that policy in her radio interview, but said her party was "concerned" about what PCCs do in their role.

Once elected commissioners should not be appointing non-elected deputies at public expense, she said, "we want to see that slimmed-down version" of PCCs.

Labour currently hold three of Wales' four commissioner posts and there is a Plaid Cymru PCC in Dyfed Powys.

Who are the candidates?

Dyfed Powys

Justin Mark Griffiths - Welsh Liberal Democrats

Ian Christopher Harrison - Conservative

Dafydd Llywelyn - Plaid Cymru

Philippa Ann Thompson - Labour and Co-operative Party

North Wales

Andy Dunbobbin - Labour and Co-operative Party

Ann Griffith - Plaid Cymru

Brian Jones - Welsh Conservative Party

Richard David Marbrow - Welsh Liberal Democrats

Gwent

Donna Cushing - Plaid Cymru

Mike Hamilton - Welsh Liberal Democrats

Hannah Elizabeth Jarvis - Conservative

Jane Helen Mudd - Labour and Co-operative Party

South Wales

Sam Bennett - Welsh Liberal Democrats

George Carroll - Conservative

Dennis Clarke - Plaid Cymru

Emma Wools - Labour and Co-operative Party

Voters will need to show photo-ID to cast their ballot.