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| PCCs: turnout is a lesser crime - the issue is how policing turns out | PCCs: turnout is a lesser crime - the issue is how policing turns out |
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| Rarely a day passed during the underwhelming campaign to elect Britain's first police commissioners when some candidate or an expert did not invoke a famous remark attributed to Sir Robert Peel, the reforming Tory home secretary, who in 1829 created the world's first modern police force. | Rarely a day passed during the underwhelming campaign to elect Britain's first police commissioners when some candidate or an expert did not invoke a famous remark attributed to Sir Robert Peel, the reforming Tory home secretary, who in 1829 created the world's first modern police force. |
| "The police are the public and the public are the police," said Peel, by which he meant that without public trust, accountability and active co-operation from citizens law and order would become doomed to ineffectual brutality, to be judged by the number of arrests or – in the repressive 1820s – by executions, not by the real test: the absence of crime. | "The police are the public and the public are the police," said Peel, by which he meant that without public trust, accountability and active co-operation from citizens law and order would become doomed to ineffectual brutality, to be judged by the number of arrests or – in the repressive 1820s – by executions, not by the real test: the absence of crime. |
| Sounds familiar? Law and order debates usually do. David Cameron's decision to impose 41 elected police and crime commissioners across England and Wales reflects widespread public disquiet over the accountability failure of traditional police authorities. Committees of councillors, magistrates and (since 1994) independents took over in 1964 from council "watch committees" which had existed since 1835. PCCs are the latest in the long history of accountability reforms. | Sounds familiar? Law and order debates usually do. David Cameron's decision to impose 41 elected police and crime commissioners across England and Wales reflects widespread public disquiet over the accountability failure of traditional police authorities. Committees of councillors, magistrates and (since 1994) independents took over in 1964 from council "watch committees" which had existed since 1835. PCCs are the latest in the long history of accountability reforms. |
| Peel would have recognised today's problem, though whether he would have embraced the coalition's ill-designed remedy – PCCs elected in dark November with minimal state help in campaigning – is more doubtful. As for privatising police functions – on the new PCCs' agenda as 20% budget cuts bite – Peel's reforms moved in the opposite direction. | Peel would have recognised today's problem, though whether he would have embraced the coalition's ill-designed remedy – PCCs elected in dark November with minimal state help in campaigning – is more doubtful. As for privatising police functions – on the new PCCs' agenda as 20% budget cuts bite – Peel's reforms moved in the opposite direction. |
| Are the PCCs up to their daunting task of setting local policy priorities and budgets, and holding the chief constable to account (sacking him, or her, too)? Does the 15% turnout on which most were elected give them sufficient a mandate? Will the government loosen the tight Home Office reins, as it promises, or will it be diktat and targets as usual? | Are the PCCs up to their daunting task of setting local policy priorities and budgets, and holding the chief constable to account (sacking him, or her, too)? Does the 15% turnout on which most were elected give them sufficient a mandate? Will the government loosen the tight Home Office reins, as it promises, or will it be diktat and targets as usual? |
| No one can tell for sure. Directly elected PCCs are what another Victorian Tory, Benjamin Disraeli, once called a "leap in the dark" which will yield better PCC turnouts when held next in May 2016. Early results on Friday confirmed what the civic-minded minority said outside the polling stations: they wanted to vote for candidates who were either independents (or independent-minded) or experienced in police matters, such as officers or lawyers. | No one can tell for sure. Directly elected PCCs are what another Victorian Tory, Benjamin Disraeli, once called a "leap in the dark" which will yield better PCC turnouts when held next in May 2016. Early results on Friday confirmed what the civic-minded minority said outside the polling stations: they wanted to vote for candidates who were either independents (or independent-minded) or experienced in police matters, such as officers or lawyers. |
| Low turnout is rightly seen as bad for democracy and cannot help establish the PCCs' authority. The Police Federation, and critics on both left and right, were quick to say "told you so". But politicians can have selective amnesia on the mandate argument. Did Labour rejoice any less over its baleful wins in Corby (turnout 44%), Manchester (18.6%) and Cardiff (25.6%), or grieve less over its candidate's defeat (on a 22.9% turnout) by the red-trousered independent, George Ferguson, for Bristol mayor? No. | Low turnout is rightly seen as bad for democracy and cannot help establish the PCCs' authority. The Police Federation, and critics on both left and right, were quick to say "told you so". But politicians can have selective amnesia on the mandate argument. Did Labour rejoice any less over its baleful wins in Corby (turnout 44%), Manchester (18.6%) and Cardiff (25.6%), or grieve less over its candidate's defeat (on a 22.9% turnout) by the red-trousered independent, George Ferguson, for Bristol mayor? No. |
| Low turnout is a wake-up call, not a death sentence. So the Tory chairman, Grant Shapps, had a point, a modest one, when he claimed that 5 million more people voted for PCCs than ever did for the highly anonymous police authorities. The ball is now at the PCCs' feet. With a positive response from the police (far from certain) and restraint from the Home Office (ditto) they must try and make a go of it in hard times. Like it or not, we are where we are. | Low turnout is a wake-up call, not a death sentence. So the Tory chairman, Grant Shapps, had a point, a modest one, when he claimed that 5 million more people voted for PCCs than ever did for the highly anonymous police authorities. The ball is now at the PCCs' feet. With a positive response from the police (far from certain) and restraint from the Home Office (ditto) they must try and make a go of it in hard times. Like it or not, we are where we are. |
| Long gone is the era of deference to uniforms or even to magistrates. The benign Dixon of Dock Green image was supplanted by Z Cars' TV realism 40 years ago. The Hillsborough cover-up, phone-hacking, the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes and much else has undermined confidence in the ever-less-visible police. Despite Labour's budget largesse and community policing agenda, the police still hide behind desks or steering wheels. | Long gone is the era of deference to uniforms or even to magistrates. The benign Dixon of Dock Green image was supplanted by Z Cars' TV realism 40 years ago. The Hillsborough cover-up, phone-hacking, the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes and much else has undermined confidence in the ever-less-visible police. Despite Labour's budget largesse and community policing agenda, the police still hide behind desks or steering wheels. |
| Overloaded by procedure, poorly organised on key policies such as IT, is not all their fault. Organised crime is more sophisticated, domestic life more chaotic, the public's expectations – not always its behaviour – so much higher. Crime is falling, but voters and their raucous tabloids don't believe it is. No wonder one in three chief constable posts are vacant. | Overloaded by procedure, poorly organised on key policies such as IT, is not all their fault. Organised crime is more sophisticated, domestic life more chaotic, the public's expectations – not always its behaviour – so much higher. Crime is falling, but voters and their raucous tabloids don't believe it is. No wonder one in three chief constable posts are vacant. |
| The background to Peel's reforms were pretty taxing, too. It included the French Revolution, the then still-vivid memory of London's five-day Gordon Riots (1780), pro-democracy protests and unrest prompted by the recession/repression following Napoleon's defeat in 1815. When the Lancashire Yeomanry lethally charged a Manchester crowd in 1819, the Peterloo Massacre gave birth to the reformist Manchester Guardian. Inadequate policing by the night watch, private "thief takers" and the Bow Street Runners (founded by magistrate-cum-novelist Henry Fielding in 1749) were a theme in them all. | The background to Peel's reforms were pretty taxing, too. It included the French Revolution, the then still-vivid memory of London's five-day Gordon Riots (1780), pro-democracy protests and unrest prompted by the recession/repression following Napoleon's defeat in 1815. When the Lancashire Yeomanry lethally charged a Manchester crowd in 1819, the Peterloo Massacre gave birth to the reformist Manchester Guardian. Inadequate policing by the night watch, private "thief takers" and the Bow Street Runners (founded by magistrate-cum-novelist Henry Fielding in 1749) were a theme in them all. |
| The contrast between the urban riots in London and other cities in 2011 and the huge success of the London Olympics this summer shows what can be done with good planning, public consent, goodwill and money. The internet and social media can be both a force for mayhem – Blackberry-inspired looting – and harmony. It is possible to imagine Twitter as a form of online rioting as vicious as the one Lord Gordon led, but also a troubleshooting remedy which the police now routinely use too. | The contrast between the urban riots in London and other cities in 2011 and the huge success of the London Olympics this summer shows what can be done with good planning, public consent, goodwill and money. The internet and social media can be both a force for mayhem – Blackberry-inspired looting – and harmony. It is possible to imagine Twitter as a form of online rioting as vicious as the one Lord Gordon led, but also a troubleshooting remedy which the police now routinely use too. |
| Our democracy is not the repressive oligarchy of the 1820s, despite failures it remains far more responsive. But we are living with the prospect of painful and prolonged economic stagnation which may prove hard to police, not least because repression is not the option that George Orwell feared it would be. Every citizen is now a reporter with a phone camera. Big Brother, We Are Watching You. That goes for you too, new PCC. | Our democracy is not the repressive oligarchy of the 1820s, despite failures it remains far more responsive. But we are living with the prospect of painful and prolonged economic stagnation which may prove hard to police, not least because repression is not the option that George Orwell feared it would be. Every citizen is now a reporter with a phone camera. Big Brother, We Are Watching You. That goes for you too, new PCC. |
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