People given power to elect top cops

OLDHAM will have its own directly-elected police chief within two years, under radical government plans to use “people power” to fight crime.

Crime and Policing Representatives (CPRs) will also be elected in other parts of the region to ensure Greater Manchester’s chief constable acts on local crime problems.

The shake-up will commit the police to respond to calls for help within set time limits, in the same way as the ambulance service.

Officers must respond to emergencies within 15 minutes, to “priority cases” within one hour, to telephone calls and e-mails within one day and attend non-emergency calls within two days.

Last night, the Association of Police Authorities (APA) warned there was a “very real danger” of the BNP and other extremists hijacking the elections to seize control of local policing. But that fear was dismissed by the Home Office, which said: “We believe that policing is a serious issue and that voters will treat the opportunity to elect their police leader seriously.”

The proposals are contained in a green paper, entitled Policing Our Communities Together, which also pledges to sweep away much-criticised police red tape and targets.

The time-consuming “stop and account” form — estimated to take seven minutes to fill in — will be scrapped, with beat officers recording information by radio instead.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said: “The public are the best weapon to help tackle crime. That is why I’m putting them at the forefront of setting priorities. I want to help the police to continue to cut crime, drive up confidence and deliver for the public. Today’s plans give greater freedom for the police matched by more power to the public.”

But Dominic Grieve, Shadow Home Secretary, described the plans as “a pale imitation of the Conservative commitment to directly elect local police commissioners”.

Bob Jones, the APA’s chairman, warned: “Direct elections would reintroduce party politics to local policing — this is something we know local people do not want. There is also a very real danger of extremists and single issue pressure groups targeting these elections for their own ends.”

The green paper also re-floats the idea of police mergers — thought to have been killed off two years ago — although they would only happen on a “voluntary” basis, with financial help.