After a series of hustings, Conservative members across the Thames Valley have selected Anthony Stansfeld as their candidate for the upcoming police and crime commissioner elections.
Local MP the Rt Hon John Redwood welcomed the news, saying "I am delighted that Anthony Stansfeld has been chosen as the Thames Valley Conservative candidate for Police Commissioner. He has much experience of dealing with police matters as a senior West Berkshire Councillor. I look forward to supporting him as candidate and working with him to offer good political direction to the Thames Valley police. "
Anthony was born in Newbury and West Berkshire has been his home all his life. His parents in law live in North Buckinghamshire. He is currently an executive member of West Berks Council, and is on the Thames Valley Police Authority. He took over as Chairman of the Performance Committee of the Thames Valley Police last year, during this period the overall crime rate has dropped by 15%, the greatest drop of any Police Force in England and Wales. He has, in conjunction with his Committee, set the exacting targets the Police have to achieve over the next few months. He concentrated his efforts on reducing rural crime, and improving household burglary detection rates, especially in Slough and Reading, neither of which has been up to standard in the past. He is also Vice Chair of the Audit, Governance and Risk Committee which oversees the financial affairs of the Police.
Anthony has had a career in both the military and in industry. He enlisted in the Army at 17. He joined the Royal Green Jackets and saw active service in Borneo and N Ireland. He learnt to fly helicopters at Middle Wallop and commanded various Army Air Corps Squadrons, including the Army helicopters in the Falkland Islands in the latter half of 1982. He spent 2 years as Chief of Staff Intelligence in the Far East. On leaving the Army he became Marketing and then for 6 years Managing Director of the aircraft company Pilatus Britten Norman, which had aircraft in over 100 countries. At the same time he commanded the Army reserve helicopters as a TA officer. All three UK Armed services use the aircraft he produced, and the Defender 4000, which he brought into service, is the last fully certified aircraft produced in the UK.
While in the Army he spent 4 months carrying out the reconnaissance for the crossing of the Darien Gap in Panama and Columbia, and led the first stage of Operation Raleigh, taking young people through the jungles of Honduras and Belize. For 8 of years he was a trustee of the Thames Valley Air Ambulance. He has an MSc and studied international terrorism and Global security at Master Degree level.
He has the breadth of experience to be Police and Crime Commissioner in the largest non metropolitan Police Authority in the country in a time of rapid change and increased threat from international terrorism. He has already demonstrated his ability to get a grip of detection rates for household burglary in our major towns and cities, and to tackle rural crime.