Labour would replace 'fundamentally flawed' elected police commissioners
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Version 0 of 1. Labour would replace Theresa May's "fundamentally flawed" elected police commissioners with a new system making police accountable to police boards of council leaders and neighbourhood policing panels. The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, says the party wants to give local residents a legal guaranteed that they can help decide local policing priorities and the number of police on the beat. "There should be a policing contract with the local community, involving councillors but also giving the public direct access in public meetings. The council and the chief constable should be jointly appointing the local police commander," said Cooper of her plans for neighbourhood policing. Labour is consulting on the best framework for accountability for each of the 41 police forces in England and Wales but the results will reflect the local government setup in each area. The options include making each force directly accountable to the 'combined authorities' that already exist in Greater Manchester, the Sheffield city region, Liverpool city region, the North East and West Yorkshire. Another option is direct accountability for some forces to 'higher tier' authorities such as county councils where their borders match the police force areas . The party is also looking at the option of creating police boards made up of existing council leaders across a police force area, lay representatives and representatives from the third or voluntary sector, including youth justice and crime prevention workers. The new organisations will be able to appoint a chair and chief executive. Cooper said the system of police and crime commissioners, which have the ability to hire and fire chief constables, introduced in 2012 had failed: "This was Theresa May's flagship reform and it just hasn't worked. The model is just fundamentally flawed. It's costing too much. They spent £80m on the original elections. It will cost £50m to hold the next elections. It cost £3.7m to hold the by-election in the West Midlands. "To spend all that money on something where so few people vote, when you could put that money back into policing, is wrong. Only 15% turned out for the original vote for the elections. "You're concentrating power in the hands of one person who can't be held to account for four years. As you saw in South Yorkshire, we called for Shaun Wright to stand down but there was no mechanism to hold him to account," she said. |