Labour's Bob Jones is new West Midlands police commissioner
Bob Jones has been announced as the new police commissioner of the West Midlands.
The former chairman of the West Midlands Police Authority has won the role over six other candidates.
Labour candidate Mr Jones beat Matt Bennett for the Conservatives into second place.
The election, which has cost £75 million nationally, marks the biggest change to policing in more than 50 years.
Police and crime commissioners will be charged with setting the police budget and how much the police get from council taxpayers along with monitoring police performance.
In neighbouring West Mercia, Independent candidate Bill Longmore has been elected as commissioner.
Mr Longmore collected 71,955 votes beating Conservative Adrian Blackshaw who got 54,499 votes after first and second preference votes were counted.
Labour candidate Simon Murphy was elimated in the first round of voting
Prime Minister David Cameron insisted that the newly-elected commissioners would have a mandate despite the low turnout.
He said: "Yes, they have a mandate and look, the turnout was always going to be low, when you're electing a new post for the first time."
See tomorrow's Express & Star for a full interview with Bob Jones.
