Extremism fear over elected police chiefs

Reporter: Lobby Correspondent
Date online: 18 December 2008

PLANS to give every town and city its own directly-elected police chief are in crisis after a committee of MPs warned the posts could be hijacked by the BNP and other extremists.

The Labour-dominated Home Affairs Committee urged Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to rip up proposals for elections to police authorities, within hours of taking evidence on the danger they posed.

The highly unusual step — committees normally take many weeks to produce reports — was designed to seize the initiative ahead of today’s publication of the flagship Policing and Crime Bill.

The echoing of that criticism by the Home Affairs Committee also signals a major revolt by Labour MPs when — or if — the plan reaches the Commons floor next year. The Bill aims to strengthen the link between the public and their local police force by creating directly-elected Crime and Policing Representatives (CPRs) within two years.

There would be a CPR for each borough to put pressure on the chief officer to act on local crime problems.

The elected leaders, who would also decide how small amounts of police funding are spent, would in turn form the majority on their police authority.

The letter to Ms Smith, penned by Keith Vaz, the committee’s Labour chairman, swiftly followed discussions with the Local Government Association (LGA) and the Association of Police Authorities (APA).

The letter stressed the committee stood side-by-side with the APA which said that taking party politics out of policing had been one of the major successes in crime-fighting over the last decade.

It also agreed that improving public confidence in policing must be our key aim for the future, but direct elections to police authorities are not the solution.

It stated: “Indeed this is more likely to undermine confidence if directly elected representatives make promises they cannot deliver, or if policing is hijacked by single issue groups or extremists.”

A Home Office spokesman said Ms Smith will respond when she publishes the controversial Bill later today.