Olly Martins
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Oliver James Martins (born 17 December 1969) is a British politician. He served as the
Labour and Co-operative Labour and Co-operative Party (often abbreviated to Labour Co-op; ) is a description used by candidates in United Kingdom elections who stand on behalf of both the Labour Party and the Co-operative Party. Candidates contest elections under an e ...
Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner The Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner is the police and crime commissioner, an elected official tasked with setting out the way crime is tackled by Bedfordshire Police in the English County of Bedfordshire. The post was created in Novemb ...
from 2012 to 2016.


Career

Born in Cambridge, Martins spent eight years working for
Victim Support Victim Support is an independent charity in England and Wales that provides specialist practical and emotional support to victims and witnesses of crime. Activities ;Support for victims of crime: Trained volunteers and employees offer free, inde ...
in the
Toxteth Toxteth is an inner-city area of Liverpool in the county of Merseyside. Toxteth is located to the south of Liverpool city centre, bordered by Aigburth, Canning, Liverpool, Canning, Dingle, Liverpool, Dingle, and Edge Hill, Merseyside, Edge Hill ...
area of Liverpool, first as a volunteer while at University and then as a service co-ordinator. Before being elected as Police and Crime Commissioner for Bedfordshire, Martins worked for the Labour Party MP,
Maria Eagle Maria Eagle (born 17 February 1961) is a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Liverpool Garston, previously Garston and Halewood, since 1997 Unit ...
.


Police and Crime Commissioner for Bedfordshire

Martins was the first person to hold the Bedfordshire post and was elected on 15 November 2012. He took the Oath of office live on air at a local BBC radio station. On taking office, he pledged that his office and staff would be less expensive than the old
police authority A police authority in the United Kingdom was a public authority that is responsible for overseeing the operations of a police force. The nature and composition of police authorities has varied over time, and there are now just four dedicated "poli ...
. He did not claim business miles for any road journeys he undertook as part of his role. He opposed plans to outsource police services to
G4S G4S is a British multinational private security company headquartered in London, England. The company was set up in July 2004 when London-based Securicor amalgamated with Danish firm Group 4 Falck. The company offers a range of services, in ...
. On 29 January 2013 it was announced that the G4S plan involving three police force, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire had been scrapped. Martins reversed the planned axing of half the PCSOs in Bedfordshire. Martins has called for persistent offenders to be fitted with GPS tags on a compulsory basis so they can be tracked in real time. In May 2013, Martins appointed Colette Paul as the new Chief Constable of Bedfordshire. Paul was previously Deputy Chief Constable of
South Wales Police South Wales Police (; SWP) is one of the four territorial police forces in Wales. It is headquartered in Bridgend. The force was formed as South Wales Constabulary on 1 June 1969, by the amalgamation of the former Glamorgan Constabulary, Car ...
. She has said about the Commissioner, "Olly Martins is committed to improving policing, as am I, so we have a good working relationship already." Paul announced her early retirement in June 2015 and said, "I consider Bedfordshire fortunate to have the PCC, Olly Martins, who is committed to ensuring the best possible future for the force." On 26 August, Martins appointed the Deputy Chief Constable, Jon Boutcher, as the new Chief Constable. Martins aimed to double the number of Special Constables in the Bedfordshire Police force. The roll-out of Body Worn Video (BWV) cameras for officers and PCSOs started in June 2013. Public panels scrutinise the stop and search paperwork and video footage from police officers. He planned to introduce hi-tech tablet devices for Police officers as part as part of a drive to get them spending more time on the streets. In 2014, Bedfordshire Police allowed The Garden Productions to make ''
24 Hours in Police Custody ''24 Hours in Police Custody'' is a British television documentary series shown on Channel 4. It primarily follows Bedfordshire Police as they investigate cases in Luton Luton () is a town and borough in Bedfordshire, England. The borough h ...
'', a series for
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
with multiple cameras in Luton Police station. The series received positive reviews. In January 2015, Martins announced plans to consult the public on whether they would be prepared to pay 16% extra on the police precept to fund 100 more police officers across Bedfordshire. On 5 February, Martins announced that he would hold the first ever police precept referendum in the country. The Bedfordshire-wide referendum took place on 7 May, the same day as the UK general election. Martins' proposed precept was rejected by 69.5% to 30.5%. In a statement Martins said, "It is therefore now incumbent upon the government to take notice of our unique circumstances in Bedfordshire and to ensure that this police force has the resources it needs not just to keep this county safe but to play its proper role in keeping the country safe.". In October 2015, Martins launched a Save Our Police campaign linked to a government petition calling for better funding for Bedfordshire Police. In November 2015, Martins gave evidence to the
Home Affairs Select Committee The Home Affairs Select Committee is a departmental select committee of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Remit The Home Affairs Committee is one of the House of Commons Select ...
and warned of the Bedfordshire Police funding crisis. The
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said of his appearance at the select committee, "Mr Martins has been one of Britain's most outspoken police commissioners as
George Osborne George Gideon Oliver Osborne (born 23 May 1971) is a British retired politician and newspaper editor who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2016 and as First Secretary of State from 2015 to 2016 in the Cameron government. A ...
tells the Home Office to prepare for cuts of up to 40%". In the 2015
Autumn Statement The Spring Statement of the British Government, also known as the "mini-budget", is one of the two statements HM Treasury makes each year to Parliament upon publication of economic forecasts, the second being the Autumn Statement presented later i ...
, the Chancellor did not make the expected cuts to the policing budget. However, Martins continued to make the case for a better funding deal for his police force. Martins was defeated by the Conservative candidate Kathryn Holloway at the
2016 England and Wales police and crime commissioner elections Elections of police and crime commissioners in England and Wales were held on 5 May 2016. The elections were for 40 of the 43 List of UK Police forces#Territorial police forces, territorial police forces in England and Wales using the supple ...
.


Controversy

In 2014 Martins was suspended from the Labour Party and investigated by the
Independent Police Complaints Commission The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) was a non-departmental public body in England and Wales responsible for overseeing the system for handling complaints made against police forces in England and Wales. On 8 January 2018, th ...
after he disclosed confidential information about the death of a man in police custody.


Personal life

In December 2018 Police Oracle revealed that Olly Martins had joined the
Special Constabulary The Special Constabulary is the part-time volunteer section of statutory police forces in the United Kingdom and some Crown dependencies. Its officers are known as special constables. Every United Kingdom territorial police force has a speci ...
. In 2023 he married his partner of 30 years.


Other activities

Martins was a patron of
LGBT Labour LGBT+ Labour is the socialist society officially representing the LGBTQ wing of the Labour Party in the United Kingdom. The purpose of the organisation is to campaign within the Labour Party, and the wider Labour movement to promote the rights ...
.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martins, Oliver 1969 births Living people Police and crime commissioners in England Alumni of the University of Liverpool 21st-century British Army personnel Politicians from Cambridge Labour Party police and crime commissioners Labour Party (UK) councillors in Liverpool English LGBTQ politicians British special constables Royal Artillery soldiers