Police & Crime Commissioners

The government is committed to replacing police authorities with directly elected police and crime commissioners (PCCs) in England and Wales. With the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill having almost completed its passage through parliament, the Home Office is looking to hold elections for PCCs.

I have spent many hours discussing the Police and Crime Commissioners with various people, but am still not convinced that the politicising of the Police forces is the most appropriate management structure. I fear the wrong candidate being elected who has the wrong morals, values, ethics, policies and how this would impact on communities.

However, not that this is being forced upon us by the Government through the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill, we will have an election in the West Midlands over the next 12-18 months, but most likely in November 2012.

I think the best candidate to become the PCC of the West Midlands Police Force is without doubt Mike Olley (pictured above in discussion with me).

Mike is a former Councillor who served many years on Birmingham City Council before being appointed Manager of one of the best Business Improvement Districts in the country; Broad Street. Mike’s wealth of experience and knowledge make him the ideal candidate to lead the country’s biggest Police force outside of London.

The introduction of police and crime commissioners will have a considerable impact on local authorities. There will be a mutual duty on PCCs and community safety partnerships (CSPs) to cooperate. Both will also have to have regard to each other’s priorities when drawing up the police and crime plan (in the case of the commissioner) and their strategic assessments (in the case of CSPs). More fundamentally perhaps, funding (which has until now been given to CSPs by the Home Office) will, at the start of April 2013, be in the hands of PCCs.

Councillors will also play a vital role in holding PCCs to account. In England all the councils in a force area will have to appoint a member to serve on the police and crime panel for that area, while in Wales the Home Secretary will seek nominations from councils for councillors to serve on the panels. The panels’ role will be to scrutinise PCCs’ decisions and actions and also assist them in carrying out their functions.

Panels will have the power to veto PCCs’ precepts and nominees for chief constable, to summon the PCC to answer questions and to review the commissioners’ police and crime plans.

PCCs and Community Safety Partnerships

The introduction of PCCs will mean a fundamental change for community safety partnerships. Unlike police authorities, commissioners will not be ‘responsible authorities’ under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, so will not be members of CSPs.

There is however a provision included in the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill that places a mutual duty on PCCs and the responsible authorities on CSPs to cooperate to reduce crime and disorder and re offending. The bill expands on this duty to also require that a PCC, when

putting together their police and crime plan, must have regard to the priorities of the responsible authorities in their force area, while the CSPs will have to have regard to the objectives in the PCC’s police and crime plan when exercising their functions.

PCCs and Community Safety Partnership Funding

Alongside these provisions PCCs will also be able to make crime and disorder reduction grants to any organisation or person in their force area. In order to give PCCs a budget to make these sorts of grants the Home Office is looking to transfer various funds to PCCs from 2012.

The Community Safety Fund, which is due to be reduced by 60 per cent from April 2012, will be paid to PCCs from April 2013 at the latest (though the fund for London boroughs was transferred to the Mayor of London from April this year). The government would like to see the Community Safety Fund transferred to PCCs ahead of April 2013, so it is likely that some of the fund will be handed to PCCs in the 2012/2013 financial year, with one option being for CSPs to get six months funding and the PCC getting the remainder once they are in post. Though a final decision has yet to be made, it is also likely that these funds will not be ring-fenced, so PCCs will not be compelled to use them to fund community safety services.

Police and Crime Panels

Alongside the relationship councils will have with PCCs through CSPs, they will have a direct role in holding commissioners to account. A police and crime panel (PCP) will have to be established for every police force area to scrutinise the PCC, and support them in the effective exercise of their functions.