Doesn’t see any conflict of interest. No plans to call a special meeting. All absolutely fine. Nothing to worry about, it’s only an allegation … Move on, nothing to see here … fuss over nothing …
Councillor Croad, Conservative Chair of the Panel on Spotlight this evening.
Wonder if the Chief Constable agrees?
East Devon Watch 
This Commissioner is outstanding – for all the wrong reasons!
I saw her interviewed on TV news and the matter of the police investigation was put to her. Her response was that no police force had approached her, nor the Electoral Commission. Can we expect her to be happy to let D&C police sit back and wait for an official complaint before taking any action whilst waiting for an ‘official’ complaint into any crime? I do hope not (in the unlikely event they might).
It seems likely that D&C police did wait until the election was over before announcing their enquiry into her past conductv as an election agent in relation to spending and accounting, and that seems to me to be allowing politics to interfere with police work. As an Independent candidate rightly pointed out, that, interference from politics, should never be allowed to happen.
Now it seems she feels that it is inappropriate to stand aside whilst she is investigated- again, what a shocking example!
What she has been exceptionally good at is demonstrating how very unsatisfactory the PCC system is.
Never mind who polices the police. who polices the police commissioners?
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Suppose the Chief Constable disagrees – and he feels that she should step aside temporarily until the investigation was complete. He has two choices:
a. Say something – and potentially damage any future relationship with the new PCC; or
b. Say nothing, continue investigating in the mean-time, but speak up if she interferes in the investigation in any way; or
c. Compromise the investigation and potentially let her off the hook (assuming she had a hook to be let off).
So immediately we start to see how the ability of the police to investigate “without fear or favour” is being compromised.
But equally importantly, it is essential for public confidence that the police are seen to investigate properly and impartially – and since we would never know if the CC chose option c. and wouldn’t know if he chose option b. if they decided Ms Hernandez hadn’t done anything wrong, we CANNOT therefore have confidence in the police unless the CC chooses option a. (which seems to me to be highly unlikely).
The only way for this to be resolved properly is for Ms Hernandez to do the ethical thing and to stand down. But when was the last time that a Tory did the ethical thing and stand down? Michael Hesseltine perhaps?
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