Changes to police watchdog scrapped
Dec 19 2008 by William Green, The Journal
GOVERNMENT plans to directly elect officials to oversee chief constables were yesterday dropped after a North East council chief spoke out against the proposals.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith blamed the U-turn on opposition from senior police, partially fuelled by “politicisation” of policing by the Conservatives in recent months – denied by the Tories.
“There has been a fundamental shift in the way people think about the politicisation of the police. I put that down to the London Mayor’s intervention in the resignation of Sir Ian Blair and the events surrounding the Damian Green affair,” she said.
Former home secretary David Blunkett has now been asked to prepare a report on proposals for Labour’s next manifesto on how to make the police more accountable.
The move came after Local Government Association vice-chairman Sir Jeremy Beecham, a Labour councillor in Newcastle, expressed serious concerns to MPs about the proposals.
“We think that the proposals are more likely to fragment the relationship between police and other services. And it is crucial that the very close partnership working which has been established over recent years between local councils, other local partners and the police should continue,” said Sir Jeremy.
He warned directly-elected officials could clash with other police authority members and said: “In particular we have regard to the fact that decisions taken by police authorities impact quite significantly on council tax – 11.3% of council tax bills in England and 15% in Wales are determined by police authorities.
“So it seems wrong to us that people elected to a single purpose authority directly without responsibility for other services should have potentially such a significant impact on the bills that people pay locally.”
The town hall leader added: “We are also concerned that there would be a considerable incentive to promote the fear of crime as a means of getting elected to a single purpose authority like this.
“And that would be counterproductive in terms of dealing with the issues that the police and indeed other local services have to face in terms of the community safety agenda.”
And ministers should launch a review of accountability rather than introduce direct elections to police authorities, said Sir Jeremy.
