Sussex police and crime commissioner Katy Bourne has been censured for joining a march protesting about the housing of asylum-seekers at a military training camp in Crowborough.
A motion was tabled at a meeting of the Police and Crime Panel on Friday (30 January) when Mrs Bourne was quizzed about her decision.
She attended the 4,000-strong march in November, telling reporters that the plan had been “dumped on everybody” with “no consultation” – and she later urged the government to look into making asylum-seekers wear electronic tags.
Green councillor Paul Keene, of Lewes District Council, proposed the motion and said that the panel had “lost confidence in the commissioner and the commissioner’s conduct”.
He said: “Her lack of impartiality has brought the office of commissioner and policing into disrepute. We therefore censure her for her actions.”
Despite being warned that they did not have the power to discipline the police and crime commissioner in this way, most panel members supported the motion.
Mrs Bourne said that she would be complaining to the monitoring officer, Mark Streater, calling the motion and the line of questioning that she faced – including references to a petition calling for her to resign – “harrassment”.
She said: “I feel threatened by it. You know my history of having been stalked and I think it’s a very unreasonable abuse of your powers and your responsibilities and you’re not behaving as a critical friend, as you should be.”
Mr Streater said that there was a process for lodging complaints about the police and crime commissioner and members had failed to follow that process, springing the motion instead.
Since the initial march in November, the first 27 men have arrived at the Crowborough camp and the protests have continued.
Liberal Democrat councillor Kelvin Williams, of Wealden District Council, asked whether joining the march had been the ‘responsible’ thing to do.
Mr Williams said that the protest marches were attracting “far right agitators” and there had been “a lot of intimidation” including social media abuse and town councillors being followed home and harangued.
He added: “It’s the responsibility of all politicians to effectively calm the community and give them some reassurance that everyone is there for them and how we are looking to keep things safe.”
Mrs Bourne is the Conservative candidate to become the first directly elected mayor of Sussex.
Labour councillor Christine Bayliss, of Rother District Council, said that Mrs Bourne had not made it clear on social media that she was talking in that capacity, rather than as police and crime commissioner.
Councillor Bayliss said: “It is very regrettable that you chose to become politically involved in the scenario.”
Labour councillor Michael Jones, the leader of Crawley Borough Council, said that the motion was not harassment. It was “holding the commissioner to account”.
He said that, before she became the Tory candidate to be the mayor of Sussex, he was not aware of her attending any demonstrations.
Conservative councillor Christian Mitchell, of West Sussex County Council, criticised the way that the motion was sprung on the meeting.
It had not been mentioned beforehand to allow Mrs Bourne time to react, he said, or to give members of the public any notice about what was happening.
Defending her decision to attend the march, Mrs Bourne said: “I’m the voice of the public in policing. My job is to listen to the public and understand their concerns.
“There is a lot of misinformation out there about exactly what my stance is in this and what I have done.
“I went on the first (march). I walked at the back and I spoke to lots and lots of residents. The idea was for me to understand the strength of feeling, to understand why people were out there in the first place.
“I took that back to the police and was able to represent that, which is my job to do.”
She dismissed what she described as an attempt at “cancel culture”, saying: “I have not stood on any platforms with left or right of politics or however you want to pull politics into this.
“My comments in the media have been very careful – to make sure that I do my job as police and crime commissioner.
“I’ve represented the public’s views and their concerns in the way I should in my role.”
The motion was carried by ten votes to four, with one abstention. The chair, Labour councillor Andrei Czolak, of Brighton and Hove City Council, said that he would liaise with the panel’s clerk about the next steps.
Whether she likes or not as Police Commissioner she CAN NOT take a partisan political position.
Her job is steer the Police.
If she wishes to become political she need to resign and stand for office in a Council or Parliament.
Why would you think it was “partisan” to be concerned about the potential criminal actions of 600 men of working age? Given they will have nearly no money, they are not confined to the base and at least some may have come here under false pretences?
It’s not partisan to be concerned about the issue but it was partisan for her to be on demonstration about it given her position.
Part of her role is to hold the police accountable as well as determining policing priorities. How can you hold the chief constable to account in policing deminstratuion when you are on a march?
If she wanted to hear the views of local residents then she could have arranged a meeting with local residents and be seen to act in a more neutral / listening mode hearing from people on both sides rather than participating in a march orgainsed by those with a particular view.
She cannot change the law to suit herself and criminalise immigrants. She would be better off lobbying to remove all financial and other incentives for coming to UK. Not only would this deter newcomers but many already here would quickly want to return if they had no genuine reason to flee their home country.
It was absolutely the wrong thing for a police commissioner to do. Her job is to protect and ensure the safety of people; her actions did the complete opposite.
We don’t need such a self-serving individual as a mayor, and I hope others will reflect on that when it comes to the election.
We don’t want an elected Mayor, full stop.
Well we’re getting one whether you like it or not.
She complains about harassment yet harasses people who have travelled here to escape persecution and hopefully gain some sanctuary. I am not debating the rights or wrongs of the system or the claimants but they are being processed legitimately. She would be better served performing her own duties to a higher degree than compromising her supposed neutrality. If she cannot see this then she ought to resign and continue her electioneering as a private individual. Personally, I fail to see what she has actually achieved in her years in office and still finding the post superfluous.
The post will be absorbed into the Mayorality, so you’re absolutely right about it being superfluous.
Whilst Katy Bourne should not have attended the protest, (and retain neutrality), one must question why councilors wasted time on a motion that carries no weight or influence. Utterly pointless.
Because sometimes even symbolic things are important.
Sometimes symbolic things like this send a message.
I think it does hold weight, especially as she is a candidate for the Mayoral election. People may consider this as a strong reason to vote for another candidate instead.
The person that I feel sorry for is the monitoring officer, who also happens to be chief executive in the P&CC’s office. They will need the wisdom of Solomon to sort this mess out. That said, unless they commit a serious criminal offence, there’s no real way to get rid of a P&CC. Which means (if you ever doubted it in the first place) the Police and Crime Panel really doesn’t have any sanctions when it comes to the P&CC, except to rubber-stamp their decisions, that is. Even so, if the P&CC was only there to do some “fact finding amongst residents”, one does wonder why it was so necessary to be close to the front of the march, and to give several media interviews at the same time as this energetic “fact finding” was going on. And there didn’t seem to be much “fact finding” when there was a similar protest at Northeye. But then, I’m just a simple, trusting soul …
I agree with you Jim. Monitoring Officers have it rough!
How long have their been P&CC’s? 14 years? What exactly have any of them ever done? Can’t be much if they’re getting rid of them.
Since 2012, so yeah – about 14 years, Bourne has been the PCC for the entire time, which one could argue creates a staleness to how things are run. There’s a lot critics out there that would support what you’re saying, that PCCs didn’t work as intended, didn’t engage the public effectively, and added bureaucracy. So I agree that the role being absorbed into the Mayor is probably a good thing.
We will definitely want more than a 22% turnout though. Regardless of political preference; we shouldn’t have a region controlled by the choice of only a fifth of the area.
Precisely
And where there are Mayors covering the police authority area they will become the PCC and where there aren’t (or the Mayoral area and Police area don’t match) it will basically return to the old Police Authority model that used to exist with councillors sitting on the committee.
But it will all change again when the number of police forces gets reduced but that will take some time (and require legislation)