The Metropolitan Police has a new commissioner after what has been a traumatic couple of months for London and the rest of the county's police service. We wish Bernard Hogan-Howe all the best in what is going to most likely be the biggest challenge in his career. There are many obstacles ahead and the pressures enormous. It is certainly not a job for the faint hearted. It takes a certain kind of person to take on such a role and the candidates all had extremely strong CVs. The appointment process has caused me to reflect on the elections of future Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and the effect they may have on UK policing. It is still a policy that causes considerable rancour between the two main parties.
That said there was a notable silence from a certain corner of the House whose peers recently gave the go ahead for PCC legislation to move through the other place. I refer of course to the Liberal Democrats; who seem to be suffering from some form of collective amnesia. It does not feel to me, and I am sure others, that long ago that we were at the party conferences of 2010 - where the hot topic was PCCs. I recall the sense of friction around the whole issue and how many members were equally concerned over the potential pitfalls of allowing so much power to be wielded by so few. I even recall Tom Brake's claims that they would push for PCCs to be run as a pilot scheme so that any of the said pitfalls could be assessed in full away from the hyperbole of Westminster. No pilot followed.
I am not expecting the same level of speculation and excitement that preceded the Met Commissioner appointment to surround every PCC nomination but it is certainly going to cause some level of controversy wherever they take place. Whether that is healthy for policing remains to be seen. The fact that the various parties could not even decide whether they were going to run candidates for the process or not does not bode well. Labour has flat out declared their opposition to the policy, although I can't see them not producing their own candidates when the time comes. The Conservatives seem to be in turmoil about whether to produce their own candidates or simply back 'independent' ones. While the Liberal Democrats are advertising for the posts on one hand while their councillors write letters in the Times (22/07/2011) declaring they "bitterly oppose" the notion on the other. Therefore I have no doubt the policy will be up for debate once again at this year's conferences.
In conversations with the rank and file officers we represent many feel it will not have much effect on the 'day job'. That may end up being the case but I have my concerns. One of the central crux's of British policing is the separation of politician and police officer. Some say this line has increasingly blurred over the years, particularly in London. I believe that a move toward elected commissioners, rightly or wrongly, represents a fundamental shift in the way our Police Service conducts itself. The results of the last election meant that no single party's manifesto was endorsed but that a compromise was reached. All three parties had very different visions for policing. That's why we need our government to go to the public up and down this country and ask them what they want from us; but through an independent review not pseudo-politicians who will be administrating areas the size of a dozen constituencies combined. Policing seems to have become an intellectual playground for those to tinker with as they see fit. It is too important an issue to be treated as such.
Whether the parties decide to produce their own candidates or support 'independent' ones the nature of elections is such that political backing of some kind will be required. I would argue that a certain degree of politicisation is inevitable. This government seems to have an obsession with visibility when it comes to policing; whether that be officers or politicians. The Home Secretary was very quick to make the point in last week's Select Committee that the Mayor was "highly visible in a way I haven't seen of other chairman of police authorities". Call me old fashioned but I believe you can still do a good job without being in front of a camera all the time. I realise the PCCs are supposed to be a lightning rod for the public so that police are held accountable; and accountability is no bad thing. However, the inevitable pressures that this will place on that individual will, I would argue, lead to attempts to exert influence over operational policing matters; a slippery slope.
The potential for conflict between the 40-odd PCCs and the hundreds of local authorities is substantial to say the least. The financing of policing has fallen increasingly to local authorities through local taxes over the past decade and as such they will be reticent to devolve responsibility to an individual. It will not be long before a blame game ensues between the local councils and the PCCs (and not to mention the Chief Constable) as to who's at fault and who is responsible should any crisis occur like the ones we have just seen on the streets of London; and you can bet it will be the bobby on the beat caught in the middle.