Conservative David Lloyd has been re-elected as Hertfordshire's Police and Crime Commissioner.

Mr Lloyd was first elected as police and crime commissioner in 2012. And on Monday (May 10) he was elected to serve a third term.

After the announcement, Mr Lloyd said he was "delighted" and that the result was an endorsement of his approach.

"It's an endorsement of more police officers, less crime and putting the victim at the heart of everything we do," he said. "I think it broadly endorses that I am dong the right things."

The role of the police and crime commissioner is to set the strategic direction of the county's police force and to hold the chief constable to account – but it does not have any day-to-day operational control.

During his election campaign, Mr Lloyd vowed to ensure Hertfordshire has its largest ever police force – working to put police on the street, provide value for money and keep council tax levies low.

He highlighted his work to develop and improve support services for victims of crime – and his plans to expand the Beacon Victim Support Service.

And he committed to ensure there is at least one 'well resourced and fully operational' police station per district.

Speaking after his re-election, he also said he was looking forward to pushing a 'Prevention First' approach – in a bid to reduce crime.

He points to the Fire Service whose prevention work reduces the number of fires they have to deal with.

And he says there are lessons to be learned in terms of reducing incidents of crime.

"All victims say to me the most important thing is not to have crime in the first place".

Also standing in the election for police and crime commissioner were Liberal Democrat Sam North and Labour candidate Philip Ross.

Unlike the 'first past the post' system used for the election of councils, the police and crime commissioner elections use a 'supplementary' voting system.

That means that rather than marking ballot papers with a single 'X', voters express a 'first preference' and a 'second preference'.

If a candidate secures more than half of the 'first preferences' , they are immediately elected.

But if they do not, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated – and then their second preferences are allocated to the remaining candidates.

In the first round of the voting, David Lloyd secured 155,114 votes, Sam North 87,524 and Philip Ross 76,941 – with no candidate securing more than half of the votes.

Philip Ross was then eliminated. And, once his second preferences had been allocated, David Lloyd won with 167,875 votes – compared to 135,695 for Sam North.

Despite the loss, former police officer Sam North – who is a district councillor in North Herts and is a member of the county's police and crime panel – said it was still "a fantastic result".

His campaign had pointed to financial cuts and reduced numbers, leading to a service that, he said, was operating at the limits of what was possible.

He had highlighted stress amongst police and rising crime. And – pointing to his experience as a police officer – he had suggested he had the understanding of how police forces could and should operate.

Following the announcement on Monday, he said: "Clearly my message of supporting our police and turning around low morale, alongside the prioritisation of bringing our police into the 21st century and tackling the issues on inequality have hit home with the voters.

"And I would like to thank everyone who supported me."

Cllr North – who has been a member of the Hertfordshire Police ad Crime Panel – says that despite the loss he would be willing to work with the commissioner on the issues he highlighted in his manifesto.

In his campaign Labour candidate Philip Ross had vowed to make tackling the supply of drugs to school age children the 'highest priority' – and to ensure all police officers were trained to respond to cyber crime and to tackle fraud.

His campaign vowed to appoint a new commissioner for anti-social behaviour.

And he had pledged to move the police and crime commissioners office – currently in St Albans – to Stevenage and to Watford, in order to reflect police priorities.

The vote for the police and crime commissioner had taken place alongside the county council and some district and borough elections on Thursday (May 6).

But the count had been delayed until Monday to enable the quarantining of ballot papers and other measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19, on the advice of local public health officials.

The ballot papers were counted in 10 different venues across the county, one in each district or borough.

And the results were announced just after 5pm at the Spotlight, in Broxbourne – formerly Broxbourne Civic Centre, by 'police area returning officer' (PARO) Jeff Stack.