Who Is Your Police Commissioner?

[Gromit]

// Nearly 90% of voters in England and Wales have no idea who their police and crime commissioner is despite November's first direct elections, which cost £75m. //

[FredPuli43]

Don't know the name . All I know is a) he's not the man I voted for b) he's a Conservative politician.

[LazyGun]

I would echo Freds answer. Cannot remember the name, is a conservative and has been a politician in the country council etc for ages. So much for bringing in new perspectives and people more in touch with the public.

[mccfluff]

no idea

[Baldric]

Ann somebody or other, haven't heard from her since she was elected, other than someone saying she had employed a relative as an aide on £35k + per annum.

[Stephen_G]

Barry Coppinger for Cleveland

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/police/police-crime-commissioners/news/pcc-election-results

[modeller]

So what ! 50% of the electorate dont know the name of their MP and 90% don't know who their MEP is, and they all cost a hell of a lot more. So what's your question ?

[ludwig]

I don't know who he/she is, what party he's from, or what he does.

[Canary42]

That must be the same 90% who didn't go to the polls because they don't want that post politically affiliated.

[LazyGun]

@Modeller The very fact that the populace are often as ignorant of who their MP and MEP is shows why the implementation of yet another tier of bureaucracy, at a local level, with a poorly funded informational campaign and elections in the dead of winter is an extremely bad idea - one that has cost millions the country can ill-afford. Its no good pointing to other broken systems and saying this is not so bad; They should not have implemented as they did, and they should have made much more effort to get the public on- side before implementing such a change.

As it is, there are already - already!- some local problems; The vice PC in Hertfordshire has had to resign over remarks on twitter, barely 3 weeks after being appointed, and the PC in Gloucestershire I think it is is being taking to industrial tribunal by the Police Chief over resignation issues.

Hardly a stellar start to a position that the public wanted!

[modeller]

My point LG is that just because 90% of the electorate dont know the name of their PC, that has little relevance to whether they are needed, do a good or bad job. You can apply the same reasoning to our councillors or even the mayors unless they are high profile . Time alone will tell if it was a good or bad idea and I'll bet either way 90% will still not know who they are.

[Booldawg]

I bet 90% of voters could tell you who the Police Commissioner of Gotham City is....

[woofgang]

Commissioner Gordon ha ha

[LazyGun]

@Modeller - OK, I now see what point you were making :)

I still maintain that this whole process of replacing the old Police Authorities with an elected Police Commissioner is an expensive white elephant, unwanted and poorly understood by the electorate ; An unnecessary election process and ongoing expense for little to no benefit.

It was poorly explained. It was poorly supported. The election was poorly implemented. It cost a lot of money - and the turnout was so low, you seriously have to question whether the elected PC can claim any kind of democratic mandate.

In practice, it has further politicised the management of the local establishment structures with the vast majority of newly appointed PCs being party apparatchicks of one hue or another. Based upon hustings I witnessed, none of the candidates have a proper grasp of the job.

It seems unnecessary and expensively wasteful tinkering at the margins to me. At the very least, it should have been postponed until April 2013 to allow for more information ,better understanding, and a better turnout, since it would not have been the depths of winter, adn could have been held in conjunction with local elections.

[woofgang]

Why do I need to know his name? Its one of the pieces of information (like the name of my MP) that I can discover if I need it, I don't need to keep it in my head.

[Gromit]

Supposedly, the whole point of making them elected was to make them reflect the public's attitude to policing.

If no one knows who they are, it is doubtful that process has happened let alone been successful.

An expensive failure but It looks like they have found a new place to put has-been politicians out to graze.

[atalanta]

I'd say I don't know and I don't care, but I do very much care about what looks like a colossal und unjustifiable waste of money.

[askyourgran]

Ours is called Mark Burns-Williams and came at a price of £100.000, he has the nerve to say he needs a deputy while he hasn't been in the job for 12 months yet. The Council are up in arms as a deputy will cost £65.000 and he hasn't proved he needs one yet. Recently he applied to the Police Panel asking for money £1.4m. to employ 44 new front line officers, his request was granted and will be paid for out of our Council Tax. I thought Cameron had put a freeze on the Police budget. All our man with the police baton could say was he was surprised and pleased he got his money. I'm absolutely fuming that he is even here in West Yorkshire, I didn't vote for this expensive fiasco. I'm beginning to realise that Cameron could not get the money for this himself and created these posts, sending out the elected Police frontmen to do it for themselves. Who says highwaymen wear masks.

[giveup]

Tony Hogg is ours and he was a foregone conclusion in this area,bit slimy for my taste. I went to a couple of meetings in this area and I have never before seen so many "has been wannabees" in one room. The whole thing was a farce from beginning to end.

[jim360]

In the grand scheme of our economy 75 million is peanuts but it was still a silly idea. Another level of "democracy" (if 10% turnout is democratic) where none was needed. Hope the idea ends up dumped soon. Politics should be kept out of policing -- I might have supported this idea more if there were no party-affiliated candidates allowed.

[LazyGun]

^^ Agree.

My local PCC is David Lloyd, and one of his ideas, if I am reading him right, is to have corporate sponsorship of the police vehicles. I am not sure that the spectacle of a blue light patrol vehicle with a Domino's Pizza decal on the side is going to do much for their authority ;)