ON May 5 Wiltshire will go to the polls to vote for who they want to oversee the county’s police force.

Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) are responsible for setting up policy, deciding the police budget and holding the county’s police to account.

The post was brought in by the last Coalition government, but the inaugural elections were tainted with terrible turnout of around 15 per cent nationally.

This year it is hoped with more publicity the community will engage more with the elections.

The Standard spoke to the four candidates vying for the position in this year’s elections to got their views on the priorities for policing in Wiltshire.

AS last year’s Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for north Wiltshire, Dr Brian Mathew is looking to turn his hand to helping keep the region safe.

An aid worker by trade, Dr Mathew has worked on improving water hygiene and sanitisation across the world for the last 25 years.

The 55-year-old from Yatton Keynell is now focussed on reducing crime in Wiltshire.

“We have too many break-ins without convictions. Churchill Insurance say we have the worst rate of solving burglary and robbery in England and Wales,” he explained.

“Almost 92 out of 100 such crimes go unpunished. This is not good enough. No doubt the cut to local police numbers of 153 since 2010 helps these criminals.

“Too many burglaries are not investigated, victims not compensated and police are frustrated.”

One of Dr Mathew’s focusses, if he is elected, will be to free up police time by reducing management from the office.

“I want to see more visible policing. Crime has gone up, and a lot of that is do with lack of visible policing,” he said.

“One of the ways we think we can do that is with the new IT equipment the police have got. They can do the reporting in the police cars, so there is less need for the job in the office.

“They don’t seem to have started to think of the implications that this technology has.”

Dr Mathew also wants to see the Neighbourhood Watch Scheme modernised and improved to “design” crime out of areas.

“When I’ve asked people about Neighbourhood Watch, they either say it’s not working or they don’t know it’s there,” he said.

“I want to move away from old image of curtain twitching members and make it far more useful, by getting communities to look out for the vulnerable.”

Reducing cyber-crime and bullying is another goal of Dr Mathew’s. To tackle the issue in school’s he wants to designate a position for a teacher in each school that is responsible for cyber-bullying.

“If kids are suffering they know there is someone they can go to,” he said. “It needs to be dealt with within the school.”

Dr Mathew is currently running an online survey to find out what are residents’ primary concerns in the area. To take part in the survey visit surveymonkey.co.uk/r/THH2BDQ