Proposals to put control of police forces in the hands of a single directly-elected individual have been condemned today as ‘a recipe for the destruction of the very foundations of the finest police service in the world.’
Councillor Dave McLuckie, Chair of Cleveland Police Authority, warned that the proposal in the Conservative Party’s Election manifesto could lead to many senior police officers resigning—and the risk that control of policing could, as one police chief has put it, fall into the hands of extremists or ‘lunatics.’
Under the Conservative proposal a single directly-elected individual would ‘be responsible for setting the budget and the strategy for local police forces’—a move which Councillor McLuckie says would place a ‘frightening’ amount of power in the hands of a single individual.
Said the Police Authority Chair “I really do find it beyond belief that serious politicians are continuing to argue for what amounts to the creation of elected sheriffs when the flaws in the idea have been exposed time and time again.
“It is little wonder that the President of the Association of Chief Police Officers Sir Hugh Orde has warned that—and I quote—‘every professional bone in my body tells me that it is a bad idea’ or that former Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Ian Blair has described the idea as ‘seriously flawed.’
“Sir Hugh has warned that for many Chief Constables such a move would be a resigning issue and I think he is correct because even the suspicion that their independence has been undermined would destroy the principles at the heart of our policing system.
“There is a very real danger that, under such a proposal, an individual could stand on an extreme or ‘single issue’ platform and, with the relatively low turn-outs which often occur in local elections, gain control of a local police force and, as the manifesto proposes, set the budget and the strategy…however narrow or extreme that strategy might be.
“Again as Sir Hugh Orde has put it ‘there will be no votes in protecting people from terrorism, from organised crime and from serial rapists that cross the country because they won’t be local and they won’t get you votes.’
“In Cleveland and many other forces across the country we have already done a huge amount of work to ensure that we listen and respond to the concerns and needs of our local communities—and that they are in position to influence how policing operates in their neighbourhoods.
“I am sure that authorities and chiefs constables would be prepared to work with any Government to examine ways in which accountability could be improved even further—but putting political control of policing in the hands of a single individual really would have frightening consequences.”