voting for your local police

[The39thStep]

What is interesting to me is that New Labour went partly towards this in its green paper on Policing with the proposal that responsibility for crime an disorder should rest with a directly elected member who would chair the local crime and disorder partnership.This was withdrawn after lobbying from the LGA and AP amongst others mainly on the somewhat disingenuous line of 'what if the bnp got elected'.

There is no reason that the Police like any other public service could not be more accountable nationally or locally. In fact its national targets are set via the Govt anyway. Why couldn't local targets and priorities be set by communities with an acknowledgement that national issues such as terrorism, serious organised crime etc or regional issues would also have to be resourced and delivered. The idea that the Police are somehow only accountable in law or to the courts just isn't true in practise anyway with joint targets held with the council and very often subject to joint scrutiny.

Taking accountability out of the Council chamber or the Police authority and into communities would actually be the most effective way to improve public confidence and reduce crime in working class communities.

 

[gosub]

Its not the BNP per say I'm worried about, though from other threads and leaked data it clear there support base lies within the working class you wish to "empower". Its the whole notion of politicisation of policing I am against, which this idea would legitimise and the formalisation of differing standards of justice that would most likely come with it, but that is a whinge apparently

I am struck by the fact that all the proponents amidst their buzzwords all seem to favour targets as well. Another step I think in the wrong direction. I don't know how many seasons of The Wire the BBC is planning on showing on terrestrial TV this year, but it is enough of damming critique of police targets to enter the meme. And to save proponents the trouble of another round of "its too far of a carature to extrapolate UK trends. The distorting effect of targets is one area Inspector Gadget has consistently blogged on.

Real Police don't do targets.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Hence the need for community control/accountablity.

I think it's a bit defeatist to simply allow the police to operate how they like on the grounds that democratising their operations will inevitably make them puppets for political parties.

Precisely, besides it not being beyond mortal ken to actually legislate a party-political ban in terms of the election of police/police authorities.

 

[Zachor]

Precisely, besides it not being beyond mortal ken to actually legislate a party-political ban in terms of the election of police/police authorities.

Exactly. You could have the candidates disbarred from standing according to their party political views. By that I mean no candidate is to be a member of a political party orr to make party poliitical speeches or statements.