Time is up for the most pointless layer of officialdom of modern times.
It’s not often that this Labour Government can be said to have done something worthwhile, but in announcing the abolition of Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) in England and Wales, we can at least point to something that is sensible and which has come not a moment too soon. For it’s no exaggeration to say that PCCs have been one of the most valueless impositions of bureaucracy in the post war era.
PCCs were introduced in 2011 by the then home secretary Theresa May as part of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act to replace the old police authorities and ‘increase public accountability’. May herself has since gone on to say that she created a monster. It would be more accurate to say that she created a sloth.
The formal functions of a PCC are many. They are meant to set policing and crime objectives for their force area through a ‘police and crime plan’. This should allow for local priorities rather than national ones. It sounds noble in principle, but all too often PCCs are subject to the same vagaries of progressive thinking as others in positions of governance.
They are also meant to hold chief officers accountable for the performance of their force and have the power to appoint and, if necessary, dismiss those same officers. But if we look at the most appalling dereliction of duty in the history of British policing, that
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to the Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
To be fair, historically our local conservative PCC removed a new built police station from the PFI deal so locals weren’t paying loads of cash to use it for an eternity. His reward, getting replaced by a Labour talking head in the next election.
The article itself, and most of the comments below are complete BS. For a bit of historical context and deeper analysis, worth reading Dan Hannan’s article in Saturday’s Telegraph. Then come back and join the discussion…
Yes, our town went from 9 PCSOs to one since the installation of the crime commissioner. That despite our town growing from 36,000 to 44,000 today. We used to have a police station, that was shut down, recently reopened but hardly used due to bats, toilets not working and asbestos issues. Doesn’t it sound familiar? Exmouth, Devon.
This should mean more officers walking up and down high streets
What do you mean ‘more’? There aren’t any. When will people get the message that apart from the City of London – it is very small and the Guildhall idiots have closed half the streets to cars – there are no bobbies on the beat or even pedalling around on a bicycle like in my old village.
Just when we might have had a raft of PCCs who will do what they are elected for – i.e. Reform – rather than those desperately trying to please their Uniparty masters, they are disbanded. PCCs were a good idea, locally accountable for local issues but poorly implemented. The biggest issue for policing is that resources are sucked into the metropolitan areas denuding the vast swathe of rural areas. Smaller county based forces, with a county crime commissioner and a centralised supply chain, providing economies of scale for equipment and vehicles is what is needed. Why should the people of Somerset pay for no police, with more and more resource dragged into Bristol, for instance.
They started off with one PA and then built empires.
However I have read they may be replaced by mayors or extra committees in some areas!
So probably not much extra money getting to the front line.
Strange but true. Measures to ‘increase public accountability’ always do the reverse.
Bureaucracies produce one output, bureaucracy.
I don’t have any detailed knowledge of this subject but I am inclined to disagree with the conclusions. There should absolutely be political oversight and accountability and making it as local as possible seems reasonable. The alternative is more centralised control, or more bureaucrats, or just some other bunch of politicians running it. The failures and deficiencies referred could be remedied by voters voting for better people – just as we would be in less of a mess if the Uniparty had not taken 80% of the votes in the last GE.
The big question is “why ?” Liebour are never in the business of reducing state interference and certainly not in the business of scrapping sinecures which they gleefully dole out as a means of getting their grubby paws into all aspects of national life so, there is something going on. This is definitely not what we are meant to think it is. Time will surely tell.
In her announcement Mahmood said the powers would be transferred from the hated (mostly Tory and Reform) PCC’s, to Local Mayors (mostly Labour). Wonder if that might be it. She also stands out from the rest of the cabinet by having announced something that in a certain light, might be mistaken for common sense.
Maybe they thought Reform candidates would win.
We already see with Sadist Khan that giving Mayor’s too much power is a really bad idea, giving them the powers of PCCs in addition will only make them worse.
Giving the power to Mayors was only one option, the other I believe was to Councils, if we get more Reform councils that may be good.
As well as the College of Policing, they should also abolish Chief Constables, APPC’s and their association, these are nothing more than political positions. Get all politics out of policing.
Yes I was thinking same – why are they really doing it?
To use “The Muslim Vote” to put more Muslims into power as “mayors” to be given control of UK Police, which will be far more than the current 41 Police & Crime Commissioners. Doing her bit for the Global Caliphate…
Yet another of clueless Mother Theresa’s ideas goes in the dustbin.
Clueless and traitor Mother Theresa!
It’s not before time that PCCs are being ditched.
Good idea, but that will leave an opportunity. Bureaucracy abhors a patronage vacuum. What will fill it?
Not before time. As soon as it became obvious that they would be political roles (candidates having political affiliations), it was always going to be just extra bureaucracy. There are some shocking stories of PCCs to be heard.
I also agree that the College of Policing should go. It is a malignant cancer on policing.
Agree. However, oversight by Mayors & or police committees will neither take politics out of the oversight or bring necessarily higher quality oversight.
I’d be interested in knowing how the author would improve things.
Pol;itics is the choice of priorities and the means of accountability to the public. Of course there has to be a political layer. We just need it to do what it is meant to do and do it economically.
The PCCs were captured by the Home Office in 2012 and thereafter by Chief Officers.
Restore the mandate to reduce crime. Eliminate Non Crime Hate Incidents, which are not crimes and so therefore in the police orbit!
It was a textbook example of a totally useless idea.
Crime rate increasing? People don’t feel safe? Let’s create a crime commissioner! Another bureaucrat, occasionally walking around with a serious expression on his face, listening to high ranking police officers telling him why they can’t solve crime and nodding in agreement.
The response of the managerial lanyard class to every problem is more legislation, commissioners, czars, committees, paperwork, studies and public service employees.
In the meantime, people keep getting mugged, dodgy people loitering in street corners and drug gangs fight over territory.
I couldn’t agree more – a totally unnecessary and expensive extra layer of bureaucracy.
I have never understood why anyone would think that the answer to anything at all is more politicians.
The College of Policing can barely be said to even exist. Carefully consult, then replace.
Give Chief Constables as much delegated power as they can handle, once they have been vetted within an inch of their lives….
Outfits like the College of Policing are paid for by tax payers but have become political campaign orgaisations. Like the police officers themselves it should have no opinion about political issues. It should give technical advice to police and politicians when asked in a purely positive way not a normative way.
There are many such organisations. The LGA is another of them. They have greater influence over law and its application and over police priorities than elected representatives and it must stop.
Vote Reform!
Who will vet these Chief Constables and fire them or put them straight if they don’t perform etc?