Responding to the Home Office’s consultation paper “Policing in the 21st Century” published yesterday, Councillor Lindsay Whittle (Caerphilly) WLGA Spokesperson on Community Safety stated:
“This proposal is a retrograde and inappropriate step. The partnership between local authorities and the police has been one of the most successful of the devolved era in Wales. To disturb this with a ‘half baked’ idea for Police and Crime Commissioners could be hugely damaging; this idea was rejected by the previous Government and there is no demand for change from the public.”
“We note in particular that such an individual would have the power to set the police precept and could be drawn from extremist political parties, without the check and balances provided by the current tripartite system.”
The Police and Crime Commissioners proposal would:
- remove the strategic link between local authorities and the police;
- undermine the role of democratically elected councillors; and
- provide a potential platform for single-issue and/or extremist candidates gaining success;
Cllr Whittle added:
“The public care about front-line policing and our view is that if it “ain’t broke don’t fix it”. At a time of financial restraint, constitutional tinkering of this sort is a costly distraction and the WLGA calls on the Welsh Assembly Government and Police Authorities Wales to oppose this measure.”
“The consultation paper does not delve deep enough into the Government’s proposal for directly elected individuals. In difficult financial circumstances, we have to ask if this is the right time to change structures through additional elections, which the LGA estimates as costing the equivalent of 700 police officers.”
“If the police are to be truly held to account at local level, then councils must be at the heart of any new system. Councils already have democratically elected councillors overseeing community safety, each of whom are scrutinised and held to account by that authority. The reintegration of police oversight into council structures is not only the most cost effective solution; the measure would require minimal legislative changes, drive out duplicate spending and deliver efficiency savings.”
