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Police and crime commissioner elections 2016

One month today the public will vote for the next set of police and crime commissioners. The outcome may prove whether PCCs have been a success, or a failure. Tom Gash explains.

The introduction of Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) in England and Wales following the 2011 Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act has not been a roaring success. Elections on a cold November day in 2012 when no other elections were happening saw only 15% of voters casting their ballots, suggesting that the Government’s plans had failed to capture the public imagination.

A number of those appointed then showed questionable judgement. Ann Barnes’ misguided contributions to an ITV documentary and payment of £15,000 to a 17-year old ‘youth commissioner’ who proceeded to abuse voters on Twitter were particularly spectacular – though you could certainly argue that she raised the profile of the office. Shaun Wright’s desperate clinging to office after the Rotherham child abuse scandal was another time when people woke up to the existence of this new political office for all the wrong reasons.

At a recent international conference held by the Howard League for Penal Reform, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Tom Winsor, demonstrated his independence from the Home Secretary by criticising PCC candidates for misrepresenting their role to the public by implying they had executive responsibility for police – rather than the more limited budget-setting, appointments and strategy-setting roles they actually enjoy.

More damningly, nearly three and a half years on from the first elections, a survey showed that just 8% of people know the name of their PCC and only 39% know they have one.

Many in government are now less enthusiastic about PCCs than other reforms. It is clear that the Prime Minister and Chancellor see PCCs as an unappetising ‘second-best’ solution for police accountability. The preferred model, long in place in London, is for a directly elected mayor who will appoint a visible deputy to oversee the police and crime portfolios. Greater Manchester has now adopted this model on an interim basis – though it will not be formalised until the first mayoral elections there in May 2017. They would like other city-regions to move in the same direction and are right to do so.

The danger of single-issue posts is that they simply cry for more resources, rather than offering the electorate a choice of whether to spend more on police, say, or local transport. But Home Secretary Theresa May is sticking with PCCs. And both she and the PM know that city-region mayors are unlikely to reach all parts of the country. May argues that successes of PCCs outweigh their blunders. As in 2012, the BBC appear to be doing more than the Government to raise the profile of PCCs, usefully highlighting several examples of PCCs making a positive difference.

In fact, in many ways the Home Secretary is doubling down, taking steps to make the post more influential and, she hopes, more relevant to the electorate. May took on responsibilities for Fire Services from Greg Clark’s Department for Communities and Local Government at the end of 2015 and promises to pass these responsibilities to PCCs, to enable so-called ‘blue light’ integration. In February, she announced that PCCs will also be given the power to oversee local complaints about policing – something many PCCs were already doing less formally. 5 May is therefore an important day for the Home Secretary – and the long-term success of this innovation in local governance in England and Wales.

Here are five questions to ask to judge whether the PCC innovation is failing, or turning around:

1. Are the candidates offering the electorate a choice?

The best PCCs take a broad view of their role, recognising that their core job is not just to hold the police to account but to commission other crime reduction and response activities, and to encourage other parts of government, the community and private sectors to take action on crime. If PCCs are talking about these wider routes to safer communities there is a much greater chance of spotting differences between candidates – rather than seeing boring posturing for more resources and bobbies on the beat.

2. Are people voting – even where local elections aren’t happening?

Turnout will flatter the government this time around, as there are National Assembly elections in Wales and local elections in most other areas. The real benchmark is what happens to turnouts in those few areas where local elections aren’t happening.

3. Are votes made on local issues, or national ones?

A perennial problem in local elections, and a reason for the introduction of more powerful and visible elected mayors in London and Manchester, is that too often local elections become a way of expressing views on the incumbent national government. There is still a clear risk that voters select their PCCs on national issues – particularly when only a minority even know what PCCs are. Democracy will also be seen to be working if PCCs performing less well are ousted. Another indicator is whether the current number of ‘independent’, non-party-aligned PCCs is maintained.

4. Are new PCCs, on average, energetic and capable?

A tricky one to judge immediately. But watch out for early gaffes, such as giving big salaries to friends (which happened in one force post-2013). Many who got the job in 2012 have expressed surprise about how much work is involved, so there should be fewer people seeing this as an easy job – but this is another risk.

5. Does anyone talk about the results?

The truth is that these elections will be a sideshow to the local election, the elections in England and Wales, and the EU referendum which is dominating both media debate and political activity. But it would be a positive sign if the mainstream media examines the results in their own right, not just as part of the wider ‘who’s up, who’s down’ narrative.

It’s likely that, whatever happens, PCCs will continue, at least until a change of government occurs. But if we can answer yes to all of the above questions once the results are in, Theresa May will have gone a long way towards proving the long-term worth of PCCs. If not, doubts will justifiably continue.

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