Richard Baum

I returned to my post-Hen do house last night to find only a small number of smashed things. It was with much relief that the number of windows, walls and ceilings was the same as it had been before the invasion of clucking women. Now all that remains is for the pair of us to get married a week on Saturday. I only hope the women of Bury can cope. They are certainly keeping remarkably calm at present, that’s for sure.

My own weekend, well away from the screeching hens, was very enjoyable. I went to the Farnborough air show and hopped on board an airbus A380 for the first time. Say what you like about a species which is slowly destroying its only home planet, but anyone capable of designing a machine the size of a town hall which can take flight gets a round of applause from me.

Surprisingly, the world of politics hasn’t stopped just because my wedding is looming. Today there’s chatterings about elected police commissioners, plans for which are about to be announced by the government. This is something that was in the Lib Dem manifesto, and Tom Brake, one of our MPs who is the Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Committee for Home Affairs and Justice, said:

“These proposals should lead to both more accountable and more effective policing.
 
“But elected police commissioners will need to be subject to tough checks and balances. 
“These proposals should not be seen as a green light for the election of Judge Dredd characters more interested in populism than effective co-operative policing.”

The worries that Mr Brake mentions mirror my own. I was never a huge fan of this particular bit of our manifesto. It’s a shame that in this protracted season of abandoning our pledges in the name of the coalition, we have doggedly stood by this one.

I think elected police chiefs are an unnecessary idea, and won’t actually improve accountability at all. Of course the police should be locally accountable to communities, but this already happens through Police Authorities which are made up of elected Councillors, magistrates and independent members. The Police Authorities set policing priorities and budgets, and make sure that complaints are properly responded to.

I share the view that there isn’t enough accountability yet, but I think the solution isn’t to have another elected person at the top, but to beef up the existing Police Authorities and make sure that the Police Service actually listen to what’s being said on the ground.

Here in Prestwich for instance, our attempts to align the wishes of the community (as articulated via their elected Councillors) to the priorities of the Police is very difficult. They have their’s and we have our’s. An elected police commissioner wouldn’t solve this problem. In fact, it would most likely make it worse, changing priorities for political reasons, failing to take into account the non-policing ramifications of policing decisions, and making Councillors less influential at the same time.

An elected commissioner would mean less direct influence for local people, not more. At present we have a clear line through local councils to the Police. Replacing that, or muddying the waters with a single elected police chief, is not the best solution. How can one person sat in an office at Greater Manchester Police HQ respond to Bury’s problems better than a Bury Councillor? We should work to strengthen the clear links between Councils and the Police instead.

Having said that, the thought of Judge Dredd presiding over GMP is quite amusing. Stick a yellow rosette on him and I’d probably think about voting for him…

Rick