Ian Brian Johnston (born June 1952) was the

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

Gwent Police and Crime Commissioner The Gwent Police and Crime Commissioner is the police and crime commissioner for the Gwent Police Gwent Police ( cy, Heddlu Gwent) is a territorial police force in Wales, responsible for policing the local authority areas of Blaenau Gwent ...

. He was the first person to hold the post and was elected on 15 November 2012. He did not seek re-election in 2016.

Background

He describes himself as having been "born and bred in the

County of Gwent Gwent is a preserved county and former local government county in southeast Wales. A county of Gwent was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972; it was named after the ancient Kingdom of Gwent. The authority was a successor ...

", and served as a police officer from 1971 until 2004. He worked in Newport, Blackwood,

Pontypool Pontypool ( cy, Pont-y-pŵl ) is a town and the administrative centre of the county borough of Torfaen, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire in South Wales. It has a population of 28,970. Location It is situated on the Afon Lwyd ri ...

Caerphilly Caerphilly (, ; cy, Caerffili, ) is a town and community in Wales. It is situated at the southern end of the Rhymney Valley. It is north of Cardiff and northwest of Newport. It is the largest town in Caerphilly County Borough, and lies wit ...

and

Ebbw Vale Ebbw Vale (; cy, Glynebwy) is a town at the head of the valley formed by the Ebbw Fawr tributary of the Ebbw River in Wales. It is the largest town and the administrative centre of Blaenau Gwent county borough. The Ebbw Vale and Brynmawr con ...

as a uniformed officer and detective, and then at Pontypool for six years as a Detective Chief Inspector and Chief Superintendent. He was head of

CID CID may refer to: Film * ''C.I.D.'' (1955 film), an Indian Malayalam film * ''C.I.D.'' (1956 film), an Indian Hindi film * ''C. I. D.'' (1965 film), an Indian Telugu film * ''C.I.D.'' (1990 film), an Indian Hindi film Television * ''CID'' ( ...

in Gwent Police from 1994 until 1999, and was awarded the

Queen's Police Medal The King's Police Medal (KPM) is awarded to police in the United Kingdom for gallantry or distinguished service. It was also formerly awarded within the wider British Empire, including Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries, most of whic ...

for distinguished service in 2003. After his retirement from the police service he served as President of the

Police Superintendents' Association of England and Wales The Police Superintendents’ Association is the sole representative body for police officers in the ranks of superintendent and chief superintendent in England and Wales. Its members are the senior operational leaders in policing in the 43 Home ...

from 2007 to 2010.Choose My PCC: Election statement
. Retrieved 29 May 2013 His platform at the PCC election in 2012 was to "Keep Politics out of Policing".

Controversy over resignation of Chief Constable

In June 2013 Johnston was criticised by local MPs

Wayne David Wayne David MP (born 1 July 1957) is a British politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Caerphilly since 2001. A member of the Labour Party, he was Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party from 1994 to 1998 and a Me ...

and Paul Flynn for his actions in causing the resignation of the Chief Constable of Gwent Police,

Carmel Napier Carmel Napier, QPM (born August 1960) is a British retired senior police officer. She served as Chief Constable of Gwent Police in South Wales from 2011 to 2013. Early life Napier holds a BA Honours (BA Hons) degree in English and Music; a Li ...

. Johnston criticised Napier's management style, saying that their relationship "was never going to work," and confirmed that he had told her to either retire or "be removed." Johnston and Napier both later 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 ...

, which discussed the circumstances of her retirement. The Select Committee report criticised Johnston's "disdainful attitude towards scrutiny by Parliament, as well as an indication of a clear over-sensitivity to criticism". It said that Johnston had been elected by less than 8% of the local electorate, and "had managed to side-step the statutory arrangements for local scrutiny of his decision to sack the chief constable". BBC News, ''Gwent Police commissioner 'disdainful', say MPs'', 20 July 2013
Retrieved 21 July 2013

References

Police and crime commissioners in Wales Living people 1952 births Welsh recipients of the Queen's Police Medal Independent police and crime commissioners {{Wales-politician-stub