South Wales PCC - Sam Bennett

The Welsh Liberal Democrats have announced Cllr Sam Bennett as their candidate for South Wales Police and Crime Commissioner in the upcoming May 2024 election.

Commenting on his selection, Sam Bennett stated:
 

"As South Wales Police and Crime Commissioner, I would seek as a top priority to restore community trust, links, and engagements across the South Wales Police area. We must restore community trust in our police force following riots in both Swansea and Cardiff over the last 5 years. I will seek to reverse cuts to funding for Anti-Social Behaviour interventions and ensure outreach in communities and schools is prioritised to build bridges across our communities, meaning our police are once more visible on our streets.

I will reduce the number of Deputy Commissioners across South Wales Police, reinvest this money in frontline policing, and campaign vigorously for policing to be devolved. These two policies will bring policing closer to the people of Wales. I will immediately launch a programme of community visits to find out what you want the police to do in your area.

It is time to take a more compassionate approach to drug offences, using the Office of Police and Crime Commissioner I will prioritise and push both governments to focus on rehabilitation programmes, an approach which would reduce repeat offending, and reduce pressure on our court system.

As your Police and Crime Commissioner, I would seek to end the use of facial recognition technology because it fundamentally breaches people’s rights to privacy and discriminates against Black, Asian and minority ethnic populations. It is more frequently used in areas of high ethnic minority populations and is poor at identifying people from these backgrounds. This technology must be shelved to restore the trust of our communities."