Bill Longmore - Experience important for top police job
In the second in our series of profiles of candidates for West Mercia’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Andy Richardson talks with Independent hopeful Bill Longmore.
Experience should be the most important criteria when it comes to selecting Shropshire’s PCC, according to the only Independent candidate taking part in the election.
Bill Longmore, 73, from Hanwood, in Shropshire, hopes his background as a police superintendent will help him to secure the public vote.
“The person who gets the job will need to get on with the police who are in charge. When I go around the region, talking to voters, they tell me that they think I will be biased because I’ve worked in the police before. That’s nonsense.
“There’s no more stringent manager than me and if I find waste, I’ll strip it out. The important thing for people to consider is this: you have to have a good relationship.
“I have a lot of experience and I can talk at their level. I understand their world, I know all about the issues that they face.
“The elections will lead to a lot of inexperienced PCCs taking up posts. But I hope that in the West Mercia that won’t happen. I don’t have any political affiliation and I have funded my campaign myself, spending thousands of pounds on getting my message across.”
Mr Longmore’s adult life can neatly be divided into three components. For 30 years, he served Staffordshire Police, retiring with the rank of Superintendent in 1986. Then he went into business, creating a multi-million pound company. Finally, in more recent times, he has devoted himself to public duty.
He is the chairman of the Hanwood Village Hall Management Committee in Shropshire and project manager for the village’s waterside park Community Spaces project. He was named winner of the BBC Midlands Sports Unsung Hero Award for 2011 in recognition of his work to develop sporting facilities in Hanwood during 12 years in the village, in particular with the women’s football team and the local bowls club.
During that service he became known for his work in improving and developing police public relations, especially with young people, by organising and starting sporting clubs.
Mr Longmore believes he is exceptional in a number of ways. He has spent many years building bridges between the public and the police. “When I was in the force, I spent a long time improving public relations.
“I was also interested in creating opportunities for young people, I was very much a leader in police activities with youth.”
Mr Longmore believes his business experience will also stand him in good stead. “One of the reasons I left the police was because I saw changes coming in that I thought were going to disadvantage officers. I saw the way things were changing.
“The Chief Constable asked me why I was leaving and I told him that the force was changing so that it was being run like a limited company. I don’t ever see the police as being an organisation that should be run on strictly commercial lines and I think the public would agree with me about that.”
Mr Longmore planned an easy retirement, after leaving the force. However, his managerial instincts kicked in and soon he found himself in business. He started a small sawmill and soon after started to manufacture sectional buildings. He identified areas in the market where he could prosper and give his clients good value for money. His company expanded and became a multi-million-pound concern.
“I had the business for about a decade and I kept in touch with local police and with local community groups.”
He moved to Shropshire about 13 years ago to retire, finding a home in Hanwood, but soon identified that there was a great deal of work to do in the community.
He got involved in local sports clubs, helped transform his village hall and became involved in other public works.
Mr Longmore added: “First of all, I look upon myself as being a leader. I’ve always had a lot of vision and innovation and I’m a motivator. I’ve organised events and run businesses and been in the police. The PCC is a role for somebody with the right profile and with a proven track record.
“People will see that I’m not only a talker, I’m also a do-er. For the last three months, we’ve been touring the region from top to bottom.
“I know the problems, I know the issues. There are a lot less police around and people feel that they are not as well protected as they would like to be. We have to accept that cuts have been made and things will be tight for several years. But we have to come up with a better system where community policing works in the right way. The police have to make the public feel confident, they have to come into contact with the public far more.
“In an emergency, the public need to know that the police will be there. The job of PCC will be really difficult, I think it’s been underestimated, but I can assure people that I’ll make sure I give it my all.”
Tomorrow we feature Conservative candidate Adrian Blackshaw
Comments for: "Bill Longmore - Experience important for top police job"
Katherine de Gama
I wasn't planning to vote but I was impressed. He has appropriate experience and appears to have the right personal and professional qualities. Btw I have a research degree in policing and prosecution and take most of what is said re the PCC elections with a pinch of salt.
Janet George
I'm not sure whether the PCC scheme will 'work' nationwide. I don't know Bill Longmore. What I wouldn't want to see is a political candidate in the job and Bill Longmore has a good combination of experience in policing, business management AND community service. So he stands a good chance of making a positive difference!
Linda
Btw not everyone has a 'research degree' in abreviated metaphor, 'research degree' = downloaded course work. Personal boasting aside Bill does appear to be articulate in his intro, a person with energy and the inituitive skills to communicate effectively with people from all walks of life. Experience and wisdom only acheived with maturity. Definately the better candidate so far and Hanwood is such a lovely place!
Peter Clarke
The role of PCC should be free of political bias and influence. They need to be truly independent or they are just an extention of their party, doing what the party demands. Mr Longmore is the only independent candidate for West Mercia and as such should be fully supported!
TelfordPete
Mr Longmore certainly appears to tick the right boxes, Policing experience, business experience, community involvement. However his policing experience was gained decades ago and things have moved on. The Police is not quite a business but inappropriate spending does need to be checked. Community involvement is to be admired but we must consider that the village community of Hanwood is totally different to the urban communities of Telford, Redditch and Kidderminster. Should he get elected he will have to escape that 'Heartbeat' culture and begin to explore the fact that much of today’s Policing policy, practice and procedure is instigated by staff who have never served as officers. He must also accept that many of the key services the police deliver are also undertaken by 'support staff'. Nice to see an independent.
Katherine de Gama
@Linda. Your comment was gratuitously offensive and ill-informed. My point was not a boast. I meant that I know something about policing. I wrote an 80,000 worrd thesis based on original research. Some of it has been in published in international academic journals. I have worked in the courts in the UK and in France. Back off please and keep out of worlds you know nothing about.
Marilyn Gaunt
Definitely the man to get my vote. I think it insulting to call his community work 'Heartbeat' What works in a village can work in an urban community, small can be beautiful and people are the same with the same fears and needs and hopes. The same argument might be used against a candidate living in an urban area as being out of touch with the countryside. West Mercia is a very mixed area but probably with a larger country area than most forces and this candidate's interests are relevant .
I certainly don't want a yes man Tory or a No man Labour candidate, I want someone who can truly represent the people not a party line , so Longmore is my choice.
Mike
I have known Bill Longmore for more than thirty years, and know him to be a very dedicated person in all that he undertakes in his life time of supporting the public in achieving improvements to the community, in particular standing up for people’s rights.
For many years I served alongside Bill in the police force, and know that despite his own senior ranking position in the force, he was never reserved in raising matters with his senior officers that he thought needed to be addressed. Indeed on occasions to the annoyance of these higher ranking officers.
His dedication to strive to improve any injustices is second to none.
I agree wholeheartedly with his statement that the position of Police Commissioner would be severely hampered for someone who has no knowledge of the workings within the police force.
Indeed I feel that politics ought not to have any place in electing a person to this very powerful position, and feel that allegiance to any political party would seriously hamper or damage the ability of clear unbiased decision making that this position demands, hence the insider knowledge of the workings of the police is essential.
OK, let’s face it, many see no reason for such an appointment, but that aside, it will happen, and a low turnout for this election could put the wrong person in this post, and I do feel that Bill Longmore is the best man for the job.