Commentary
| Published date | 01 September 2011 |
| DOI | 10.1350/pojo.2011.84.3.565 |
| Date | 01 September 2011 |
| Subject Matter | Commentary |
The
Police
Journal
COMMENTARY
In a recent lecture to the Institute for Government the Policing
Minister Nick Herbert has outlined the intended role and
responsibilities for the Police and Crime Commissioners created
under the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011.
Describing the creation of PCCs as ‘the most significant demo-
cratic reform of policing in our lifetime’, he noted that following
their election in early November 2012 the PCCs will take office
later that month. It is also clear that the Minister is placing
considerable trust in the ability of PCCs to bring the local police
force fully to account; a function which he believes effectively
eluded their predecessors, local police authorities. The strength
of the PCC will lie in the direct elections, which he expects will
give PCCs a legitimacy and a sense of purpose that police
authorities rarely exhibited.
It is certain that any mechanism that begins to narrow the gap
between police priorities and those of the public should be
welcomed. As was to be highlighted many years ago in the
Operational Police Review of 1990, the widening gulf between
those issues prioritised by the police and those which most
engaged the public had even then become a worrying chasm
(OPR, 1990). This problem was, of course, to reappear as a
matter of concern, this time by way of a Report from HMIC in
2010. This demonstrated that the chasm between police and
public continued to exist. HMIC’s important Report Stop the Rot
was once again to highlight the distance, in relation to the
importance attached to antisocial behaviour, between the police
service and the public it was there ostensibly to serve.
The report noted that while the police concentrated on
serious and organised crime, the public continued to be con-
fronted by levels of antisocial behaviour that often ruined lives.
It also meant that while crime rates continued to fall this was not
matched by any decline in the fear of crime among the public.
The Police Journal, Volume 84 (2011) 195
DOI: 10.1358/pojo.2011.84.3.565
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