Ministers to introduce directly elected police chiefs

27 Jul 10
The government has set out plans to shake up policing, making forces more accountable to local communities by introducing directly elected commissioners
By David Williams

27 July 2010

The government has set out plans to shake up policing, making forces more accountable to local communities by introducing directly elected commissioners.

Locally-elected police and crime commissioners will be introduced from 2012 as part of what Home Secretary Theresa May is heralding as a ‘the most radical reforms to policing for at least 50 years’.

Commissioners will set forces’ budgets, set strategic priorities and appoint chief constables.

The plans were detailed yesterday in a consultation paper titled Policing in the twenty-first century: reconnecting police and the people. The consultation will run until September 20.

The National Policing Improvement Agency is to be scrapped, while the Serious Organised Crime Agency will be superseded by a new National Crime Agency, which will also oversee border security.

May promised to put more responsibility in the hands of officers, which she said would cut down on form-filling and release more time for them to fight crime. She also pledged to drive collaboration between police bodies, and strengthen links between forces and local neighbourhood watch schemes as well as voluntary groups.

‘For too long, the police have become disconnected from the communities they serve,’ May told the Commons yesterday. ‘They have been bogged down by bureaucracy, and they have answered to distant politicians instead of the people.’

The secretary of state also said she would make the force more efficient to preserve frontline policing, and to improve value for money by reviewing regulations around procurement.

But the move has already disgruntled some in local government, which appears to have been bypassed by the government’s proposals.

Richard Kemp, leader of the Liberal Democrat group at the Local Government Association, said the plans showed the government has ‘little idea of how the police need to be accountable at all levels, and not just force level’.

‘That accountability is provided… by strong existing practice between police, councillors and communities.’

He calculated that the proposals would cost the equivalent of 700 full-time officers, would make partnership working more difficult.  

Rob Garnham, chair of the Association of Police Authorities, said: ‘Our main concern continues to be the introduction of untested and uncosted changes to police accountability at a time when we need to be focused on driving down the costs of policing.’

He said there should be a longer consultation period.

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