The Leader of the Opposition Liberal Democrats on Northamptonshire County Council, Cllr Brendan Glynane, has joined calls for elected police commissioners to be scrapped in a letter to The Times. Cllr Glynane, a member of Northamptonshire Police Authority, and a long standing critic of elected Police Commissioners, was one of 115 signatories to the letter. He was joined by other senior Liberal Democrats in local government and on police authorities across the country.
Cllr Glynane said “The Government really need to think again on this one. As myself and my Liberal Democrat colleagues across the country pointed out, one of the big concerns raised in the phone hacking scandal is the relationship between politicians and the police. Elected Police Commissioners clearly confuse this relationship.”
“Instead, we should look to make police boards more accountable and transparent, but keep the separation between politics and the police as it currently exists.”
Text of the letter to The Times is below:
Sir, One of the concerns raised by the phone hacking furore is need for a clear separation between politicians and the police. They are both important pillars of the state but they can only work effectively when one sets strategy and one carries it out.
This is one of the chief reasons why many people in local government bitterly oppose the Government’s proposal to introduce elected police commissioners next May. We can think of no situation more confusing to all concerned than one where a politician is elected to lead the police but does not have any influence over their management.
For this reason we ask the Government to drop the proposal for elected police commissioners, and to replace them with police boards which will work with local government and provide the transparency that is so badly needed.
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