Reform and the new Commissioner Model

The chief executive of West Mercia Police Authority, David Brierley, examines the potential outcome of the government's plans for elected police commissioners.

The coalition government, formed in 2010, was quick to announce its plans to replace Police Authorities with Police and Crime Commissioners. As I write, the detailed proposals are subject to parliamentary scrutiny, as part of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill.

The existing Police Authorities throughout England and Wales are to be swept away and replaced by elected Police and Crime Commissioners with powers to appoint their own staff and exercise unprecedented individual influence over British policing.

It is proposed that Commissioners will have sweeping powers to set policing priorities and importantly, to appoint and remove Chief Constables with very few checks or balances over their decisions. This has given rise to concerns that Chief Constables may be subject to considerable personal influence and policing priorities could be open to distortion.

Recently, a government advisor on crime, Jessica de Grazia, has gone so far as to express her fears that the introduction of this American model of ‘police chiefs’ could give rise to corruption. Jessica conducted a review of the Serious Fraud office in 2008 with many of her recommendations being implemented.

In her recent memorandum to government available on www.parliament.uk, Jessica criticises the lack of controls or checks over the new Commissioners drawing on her considerable US experience.  The Police Minister, Nick Herbert, has rejected these suggestions pointing out that the actions of Commissioners will themselves be scrutinised by new Police and Crime Panels which will be made up of councillors appointed from constituent local authorities in each force area.

Yet the powers afforded to the Panels (PCP’s) seem somewhat limited, relying heavily on press and public disapprobation, rather than any actual powers of veto or any ability to refer issues to the Secretary of State. Vernon Coaker, Shadow Policing Minister has described the PCPs as they stand as ‘completely toothless watchdogs’. One important exception attaches to the setting of a police precept. This at least can be vetoed by the Panel provided it can muster a 75% majority to reject the precept proposal of the Commissioner.

A major claim for the new Commissioner model is its visibility. Voting for Commissioners is set to begin in May 2012. Yet accessibility may be rather different with only one Commissioner per force area replacing the current community links and spread of representation afforded by the existing 17 or 19 member Police Authorities.

Few professionals in the arena of policing have welcomed the proposals and many have questioned tinkering with constitutional safeguards over a key security service. To ensure safeguards for the public, the role of PCP’s (and therefore the role of democratically elected councillors) needs to be strengthened and valued. Lord Toby Harris, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Policing, has expressed concerns and claims there is a spread of MPs across the political spectrum worried about the proposals.

As the Bill progresses, the Lords will have a final opportunity to influence Government to ensure that protections against the worst excesses of an extreme or corrupt Commissioner are in place. That is not to say that most Commissioners will be anything other than honourable and upright individuals, but without safeguards a risk of abuse must remain. Constitutional safeguards are exactly that, they may rarely need to be exercised but their existence is a protection to all our freedoms.

As a police authority Chief Executive I am deeply aware of the enormous value of detailed scrutiny currently undertaken by police authority members. It will be impossible for one individual, however able or committed, to undertake this work and the range of public engagement fulfilled by members at present, at least without a significant amount of voluntary or paid assistance. Commissioners, themselves expected to be highly rewarded, have power to establish their own staff and advisors.

This is not expected to come cheaply and this new ‘US style’ administrative support shows every likelihood of costing a great deal more than at present, Commissioner elections alone are expected to cost around £50 million in 2012. In many cases the election costs will equate to around half the annual cost of operating the very police authorities they replace and that before an ounce of scrutiny or direction takes place.

The proposals are certainly not cost cutting and it is hard to see what defect they are intending to remedy. Corruption in policing has been significantly reduced since the sixties when the existing police authorities came into existence. Crime levels have been falling and public satisfaction improving. Oversight has been open and transparent. Costs of governance have been relatively low and a recent Audit Commission/HMIC inspection of half all police authorities found not one failing authority and many performing demonstrably well.

The proposals have been threatened by recent rejection in the Welsh Assembly, Keith Vaz, the Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, has described them as 'a new concept for British policing' and the Chairman of the APA, a conservative representative, has described the proposals as 'the wrong policy at the wrong time'. Kit Malthouse, Chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority claims the government has seriously under estimated the work of transition to the new proposals, planned to be complete in May 2012.  Anne Barnes, the Chair of Kent Police Authority has called upon government to reconsider these reforms which she claims will cost millions of pounds which the country can ill afford. She says” The risks of introducing US style elected Police Sheriffs into the UK are clear – we could see politicisation, higher costs, the concentration of power over policing with less influence for minorities and important policing priorities neglected.”

It remains to be seen if the proposals reach the statute book, but assuming they do, it will be colleagues in local government and in the future Commissioner’s support teams who will be picking up the pieces to make it all work.

David Brierley is chief executive of West Mercia Police Authority.

Colleagues may wish to read Jessica de Grazia's article entitled 'The impact of Elected Police and Crime Commissioners on Operational Independence and Confidence in the Police'. The memorandum is published on www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmpublic/policereform/memo/pr94.htm or can be found by searching ‘de grazia associates’

This article first appeared in 'Leadership in an Age of Change & Austerity', published in May 2011 by the Association of Council Secretaries and Solicitors (ACSeS).

To order or download a copy from the ACSeS website, please click here.