The man in charge of overseeing Avon and Somerset Police is urging voters to elect him for a second term so he can continue his “eight year plan” for the police — and not vote for what he has warned will be “18 months of stagnation” under a new commissioner.

Mark Shelford was elected as Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner in 2021, and is standing for re-election to the role on May 2 as the Conservative candidate.

In his three years in the role, Mr Shelford said he had led “a complete leadership and culture change within the police”.

Mr Shelford said: “I was a soldier for 32 years and I spent a lot of that time abroad working in different areas with different local police forces so it gave me appreciation of two things. 

“One, what good and bad policing looks like at the sharp end. But also different communities and their cultures, and how to be able to understand their cultures and support them, particularly when these cultures come into an alien environment in Britain.”

After his time in the armed forces, Mr Shelford was a councillor in Bath and North East Somerset and deputy leader of the council.

He said: “I understand the local political arena.”

The police and crime commissioner sets the police precept part of council tax, decides how the budget is spent, sets local policing priorities, and can appoint and dismiss the chief constable.

They also hold a regular performance and accountability panel, holding the chief constable and deputy chief constable to account on local issues.

Mr Shelford said: “My track record and everything is about keeping the community safe and focussing on the community.”

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “We have recruited more than 1,600 police officers to give an uprise of 500 plus, one third going into CID and two thirds going into neighbourhoods.”

He said: “I have bought a new police station in Bath. I have also bought a new police station in Minehead, and we have revamped police stations all over.”

In 2021, Avon and Somerset Police rolled out Operation Bluestone, a new way of handing rape cases putting the emphasis on the perpetrator not the victim which led 300% rise in rape cases reaching crown court.

It is now being rolled out across the country as Operation Soretia.

My Shelford said: “Avon and Somerset led the world and particularly the UK in this change of culture around the victim and keeping the victims as part of it.”

He said that he had also worked with four other police and crime commissioners in the South West on Operation Scorpion, a major anti-drugs operation which he said made Avon and Somerset Police “the top performing force for drug disruptions in the country.”

It has also involved sharing intelligence about rural crime gangs.

He said: “This is already changing the landscape of rural crime. Within Avon and Somerset alone we have the lowest records of illegal hunting this year since anyone can remember.”

Mr Shelford said he was also focussing on preventing and reducing reoffending because 80% of people in prison have been to prison before.

He warned that the two major things driving this were prison leavers not having anywhere “decent and safe” to live and not having a job.

In an effort to tackle this, he is chair of the award-winning Prisoners Building Homes Programme, which sees prisoners construct eco modular housing while in prison.

He said: “It teaches prisoners whilst in prison […] skills of building so when they leave prison they can get a job.”

The first six homes built through the programme are set to be installed in Bristol. He said: “They are really high quality.”

Mr Shelford said: “Most important is that culture and leadership change which is showing so many dividends, and what is important is continuity is kept — and what we don’t want is a hiatus of a new PCC coming in and the whole program stopping, and a new police and crime plan coming, and it’ll be a year to make that police and crime plan work.

“It will be 18 months of stagnation — while I’m three years into an eight year plan.”

The election for Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner takes place on May 2, the same day as local elections to Bristol City Council and a Somerset Council byelection for Mendip South and a South Gloucestershire Council byelection for New Cheltenham.

For most voters outside Bristol, however, the police and crime commissioner is the only local election happening on a day which will see all of England and Wales eligible to vote in a local election of some kind.