February 15, 2012  

What do you reckon to electing your local police chiefs?

For the first time ever, on November 15 the country, ex-London, will be electing 41 police commissioners. London will do its own thing on May 3 when in effect the Mayor is elected as the Police Commissioner. Labour candidates are being selected in the next couple of weeks and I heard one of them, ex-MP Jane Kennedy standing for Merseyside and Wirral, last week along with Peter Jones, a Tory candidate for East Sussex, and Brian Paddick the Lib/Dem candidate for London Mayor.

Deputy Chief Constable Beckley from Avon, chair of the Police History organisation (sic), stated that this was the biggest change in policing in this country since 1829 and the introduction of the Peelers! And there has been hardly any talk about it!

The debate posed the legitimacy of the ballot box against the politicising of policing. But a few sub-plots came out of it that I had not spotted. For example Kennedy argued that Cameron will not be able to draft in 12,000 PCs to London as he did after the riots, against the wishes of elected Commissioners. She led me to think that soon we will have post code policing just as we have post code health or education.

Beckley also pointed out that the operational independence of the Chief Constable is nowhere defined in the act and that under Boris we have managed to have 3 Chief Constables in as many years. What price operational independence? Whatever Johnson has done for London, he certainly has not brought stability to the Met!

Old political hands will, of course, have their own views about what the turn-out might be for the election on a damp, cold miserable November 15 in deepest Northumberland (How about 10%?), but it is certainly my view that elected commissioners should be totally integrated into the local political scene as in London. At least here we do know that Mayor Johnson is responsible for most things. Here in London accountability is sufficiently focussed that it is meaningful. In the shires I suspect that there will be a confusion of accountability with councils having most of the crime prevention responsiblilties and the Commissioner the traditional reactive policing responsibilities.

I have always thought that a single body would be more accountable than a selection of separate bodies and hence I think that London’s Mayor should have the focal responsibility for health, as well as policing. Whether that body should be a Mayor, or in my preference a Council with a Leader, is another matter.

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About Tony Belton

Labour Councillor for Latchmere Ward 1972-2022, now Battersea Park Ward, London Borough of Wandsworth Ever hopeful Spurs supporter; Lane visit to the Lane, 1948 Olympics. Why don't they simply call the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, The Lane? Once understood IT but no longer

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