When politics interferes with policing
The events at last week’s Police Authority meeting simply confirmed the awful reality of the government’s policy to create Police Commissioners.
John Harrison’s article in Saturday’s Chron reinforced what has been obvious to many, that the current system may be bureaucratic and a bit clunky, but at least a Police Authority with a mixture of councillors, magistrates and independent members allows for debate and even change.
The universal fear is that the creation of Police Commissioners will ensure there is both political control and interference in operational policing. The behaviour of the Tory county councillors at the meeting demonstrated that is indeed the shape of things to come.
From the off, the Tories, who have seven councillors to the opposition parties’ two members, were determined to wield their political clout. The theory is, of course, that the councillors leave their politics outside the Police Authority and serve not as party hacks but in the interests of the police service.
However the Tories act as a caucus for the county council administration and even had the temerity to adjourn the meeting so that they could confer with county officials about how they should proceed.
The Tories on the PA do not want any increase in the rate demand; the magnificent seven want to save us all £7.72 per household per year. This is an ideological position designed not to protect and serve the people of the country but to demonstrate the virility of the party that stands up for law and order, as well as pleasing Eric Pickles in Whitehall.
It is a curious quandary the Tories find themselves in. They accept, from the great bear Binley to the most mediocre backbench Tory councillor, that Northants has been traditionally underfunded by successive governments when it comes to the annual policing settlement.
You will be pleased to know the Tories have a cunning plan to solve the continuing problem of systemic underfunding. They want to peg back the funding even more and cut the grant from NCC to the Police Authority!
It became obvious even to the dimmest member of the Tory caucus that their position had nothing to do with effective policing and everything to do with their party. So after adjourning they come back with a solution, a grant of £300,001 for one year only, provided the Police Authority did not try to get £7.72 extra out of every household in the county.
However the Tories still intend to go ahead with cutting the £500,000 to supporting PCSOs. A commitment the ‘law and order’ party never offered in their election promises!
There was a condition the seven tried to impose; that the money would be used ‘to help fund a police programme to combat violent crime’ not of course ensure that some PCSOs were retained for another year.
Whatever way you look at this piece of sophistry, it amounts to the same thing... an attempt to interfere with operational policing.
So we now move to the function of a Police Commissioner. The argument runs that an elected commissioner will be free of political interference.
Now if the seven people on the current Police Authority Tory caucus try to implement their party’s budget policy and interfere with operational policing, what will ONE elected Tory get up to?
Ken Clarke on Question Time last week tried to defend the indefensible. His first argument was that by electing one person to run the police service he would be more accountable to all of us, and we would all know who he was, unlike the anonymous Police Authority.
Think about that. One person responsible to 400,000 electors? Ken thinks by electing him (and it’s almost certain to be a white middle aged male) we can all immediately contact him with our problems because we will know him. Like we all know our local MEPs.
Clarke also made a plea the commissioners should not necessarily be old party hacks put out to pasture. He wants independently-minded folk to stand. You know the sort, those with £5,000 to spare for the deposit and the wherewithal to pay for at least 400,000 leaflets.
That is why politicians who have never been involved with policing are standing, or former Chief Constables who have been involved in policing but will not be able to resist interfering with operations, are the sort of names coming forward.
It would appear the two main parties have already divvied up the country: Labour hacks in the North, Tory hacks everywhere else. So much for the spectacle of democratic accountability at work.
In Northamptonshire however, while it is almost certain the Tories will put up one of the seven on the current authority, there is a potential Labour candidate waiting in the wings. According to the ‘Police Professional’ a bloke with a double barrelled name from Towcester has applied to become the Labour nominee. For 27 years he was a police officer but more significantly he is a Lt Colonel, recently back from Afghanistan, and an important Freemason. Sounds a good bet for the folk here in Spring Boroughs to relate to, but maybe Labour is just a flag of convenience after he failed to wrest the Tory nomination away.
You have been warned what to expect.
Email to a friend
Print this page- BREAKING NEWS: Tributes paid to Niamh Curry as brave five-year-old loses battle against cancer
- BREAKING NEWS: Pensioner dies after collision at Northampton shopping centre
- Man tied to tree and beaten on Northampton Racecourse
- BREAKING NEWS: Woman’s body found after ‘suicide’ in Northampton hotel room
- BREAKING NEWS: Seven-year-old boy dies following house fire in Northamptonshire
- Staff strike at Northampton school over academy plans forces closure
- Northampton binmen at ‘breaking point’
- Saints’ stadium plans get support as long as traffic issues solved
- Eastern European pupils helping school standards across Northampton
- Exclusive: PM David Cameron says Northamptonshire Police Commissioner role is “a big job for a big local figure”
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Northampton
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: East
Your view
Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.