Electing police chiefs will significantly improve community safety – report

Directly elected police commissioners would improve local accountability of policing matters and collaborate with the community to better address local problems, a report by Policy Exchange has claimed.

In its report, Partners in Crime: Democratic Accountability and the Future of Local Policing, published in November, the thinktank warns that local policing in England and Wales is in “desperate need” of democratic renewal.

“Home Office micromanagement has undermined public confidence in the service and weakened the historic bonds between the police and the communities they serve,” the report said. “A generation of officers has entered the service working towards centrally-imposed targets rather than community priorities.”

Currently, each of the 43 police forces in England and Wales is divided into small policing areas known as “basic command units.” According to the report, the introduction of directly elected police commissioners in each of these units would more effectively hold local policing to account and provide strategic direction for partnership working.

In turn, directly elected police commissioners would also work alongside local authorities, adopting the leadership role in Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) and police authorities that councillors are currently unable to fulfil, Policy Exchange said.

Natalie Evans, author of the report, said public confidence in the police had fallen dramatically. “We should abandon central targets, and create genuine localism in policing by electing police commissioners. Anonymous and unaccountable police authorities should be scrapped and replaced with a police commission for each area comprised entirely of elected commissioners.”

Sir Hugh Orde, the President of the Association of Chief Police Officers, has warned against the introduction of elected police commissioners, maintaining that operational independence remains essential.