Police Commissioner Adam Simmonds has announced his three temporary assistant commissioners have all been given £65,000-a-year permanent jobs.
Mr Simmonds this morning announced Iain Britton is to become the permanent Assistant Commissioner for Justice.
Kathryn Buckle becomes Assistant Commissioner for Governance and Peter Heaton becomes Assistant Commissioner for Public Involvement.
All three were given the jobs on a temporary basis following his election in November last year.
The trio take up their posts on April 1.
They will be based at the office of the Police and Crime Commissioner at Northamptonshire Police HQ at Wootton Hall.
The appointment of Ms Buckle, who acted as Mr Simmonds’ election agent, and Mr Heaton, who worked as his press agent during last year’s election, have already been met with criticism by opposition parties.
The leader of the Liberal Democrat Opposition at County Hall, and member of the Police and Crime panel, County Councillor Brendan Glynane today labelled the appointments as “pure cronyism”.
He said “It really is unbelievable.
“The Conservative Police Commissioner has given his campaign staff permanent taxpayer funded jobs at £65k-a-year. Given the outcry when he doled out the positions on an interim basis you’d have thought he would have learnt. This is pure cronyism.”
He added: “We have Conservative party political activists, with no record of involvement with the police, sitting in an office on £65k a year.
“The Conservatives have made the wrong choice yet again, choosing cronyism and jobs for the boys and girls over making our streets safer.”
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