"A recipe for confusion, conflict, cost—and a poorer service to the public..." That was how the Chair of Cleveland Police Authority described the plans announced by the Government today to put policing under single person control through the creation of so-called ‘Police and Crime Commissioners’ who would have the power to set policing priorities and budgets as well as appointing—and dismissing—chief constables.
Councillor Dave McLuckie was speaking after the publication of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill which proposes that from 2012 there will be elections for the Commissioners, as well as the creation of Police and Crime Panels which will scrutinise decisions made by Commissioners...and will have the power to veto Council Tax precept proposals.
Said the Police Authority Chair “There is a real irony in the fact that we have the Home Secretary announcing plans to tear apart the very foundations of the British policing system—rightly regarded as the best in the world—on the same as the latest crime figures here in Cleveland show that so far this year we are again making huge reductions in crime...down by over ten percent, double our target rate.
“It is nothing short of outrageous that at a time when we face cuts in Government funding of 20 per cent or more it is proposed to spend huge amounts of money on the election process for Commissioners...around £50million over ten years according to the Home Office’s own figures...and then pay them around £122,000 a year.
“So the total bill could reach a staggering £136million—that’s the equivalent of many hundreds of police officers who could be out on the streets fighting crime and protecting the public.
“The fact is that, outside one part of the Coalition Government, there is no interest or support for this proposal. Nobody across the entire police service believes it will improve the fight against crime and indeed one of the parties within the Coalition Government fought the General Election on a manifesto which proposed the strengthening—rather than the destruction—of police authorities.
“The idea of having a single individual in charge of policing might have superficial appeal, but any proper examination exposes the deep flaws. Apart from the cost of paying the Commissioners, there is the question of the enormous bill which will have to be met for the support structure they will need to do the job properly, not to mention the potential for enormous tensions—and yet further costs—from the proposal to create Panels to hold Commissioners to account and give those Panels the power to veto Council Tax precept increases.
“Apart from the cost of elections, there is the very real danger that the elections could attract candidates standing on populist ‘single issue’ or extreme platforms, with the very real risk that, if elected, the policing priorities for an area could be totally distorted.
“This is not scaremongering—the British National Party has already made clear they intend to field candidates so we could have the situation where a party whose members are not allowed to be police officers could hold the power to control the priorities of an entire police force.”