Politicians will not make the best police commissioners, says new poll
Less than
1 in 10 people think that former MPs and councillors will be the best
Police & Crime Commissioners (PCCs). A new poll for Policy Exchange,
the think tank that first advanced the case for democratic
oversight of the police, found that former government ministers and
senior politicians were, in fact, seen as the least suitable candidates.
A
majority of those surveyed (59%) thought former police officers would be
the best candidates, followed by ordinary people with an interest in
the issues (29%), someone from a military background (26%) or someone
from a business background (13%). Former government ministers and
senior politicians and MPs were deemed the least suitable – backed by
just 6%.
The poll
of 1,700 people, carried out last week by YouGov, also found that voters
wanted police commissioners to focus on local issues such as tackling
anti-social behaviour (50%) and making the police more visible
in the community (47%). Voters were most concerned about burglary
followed by vandalism, public drunkenness and drug crimes.
Asked
which policies would make you more likely to vote for a candidate to be
Police & Crime Commissioner, the public backed:
-
Moving more officers into neighbourhood policing teams (48%)
-
Seizing more assets from convicted criminals (46%)
-
Keeping police stations open (41%)
The survey also found that voters were
not prepared to pay more for policing via their council tax – a key
power that new Police Commissioners will have.Blair Gibbs, Head of Policy Exchange’s Crime and Justice Unit, “Political parties need to think carefully about the kind of candidate they are putting forward for the Police Commissioner elections in November. Voters will value relevant experience over a political CV, and are looking to back candidates who speak to their concerns about local crime and disorder and the need to support visible, neighbourhood policing.”
NEED I SAY MORE?
Don't fall into the trap of the 'more visible in the community' thing though. The more police you have being visible the more police you DON'T have working on all that difficult back end stuff like solving complex cases. Sometimes the best policing is the policing that nobody ever sees...
ReplyDeleteIt's a fair point Paul. I used to be one of those officers and the balance has to be right between neighbourhood policing and specialist resources. The aim is to reinforce the neighbourhoods with more highly visible officers and specialist resources by making the service more flexible and cutting down on wastage and duplication. Sadly only 11% of the police resource is out there policing and that has to improve.
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ReplyDelete11%? Wow, I think that's quite a bit lower than people would expect. Looking forward to seeing your ideas for how to improve that.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that there are many people who don't agree with the populist view that politicians trot out about "bobbies on the beat" What I want to see is effort made to catch the "Mr Bigs" - you will know better than I but I suspect this will mean a lot of " back office" work - getting evidence and recording it correctly in order to ensure conviction.
ReplyDeleteIt's a really good point you make PH. Northunbria restructured their approach to catching the Mr Bigs and we'll have to wait and see if it's been the right thing to do. As you can imagine I want them to strengthen this area and not only nail these gangsters but seize all their assets and evict them. Victims first offenders second that's my idea.
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