Oliver James Martins (born 17 December 1969 in Cambridge) is a British politician. He served as the

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

and Co-operative

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 Bedfordshire (; abbreviate ...

from 2012 to 2016.

Career

Martins spent eight years working for Victim Support in the Toxteth 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.

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. 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

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. 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. 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. The programme is made by The Garden Productions; the same production co ...

'', a series for Channel 4 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 Committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Remit The Home Affairs Committee is one of the House of Commons Select committees related to government departments: its ...

and warned of the Bedfordshire Police funding crisis. The Daily Mirror said of his appearance at the select committee, "Mr Martins has been one of Britain's most outspoken police commissioners as George Osborne 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 taking place the previous year as the Autum ...

, 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 territorial police forces in England and Wales using the supplementary vote system; the two police forces of Grea ...

Controversy

In 2014 Martins was suspended from the Labour Party and investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission 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.

Other activities

Martins was a patron of

LGBT Labour ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martins, Oliver Police and crime commissioners in England Living people 1969 births Alumni of the University of Liverpool 21st-century British Army personnel People from Cambridge Labour Party police and crime commissioners Councillors in Liverpool LGBT politicians from England British special constables Royal Artillery soldiers