Politicising police is pointless, expensive and has no mandate – just another Coalition policy then

The Duke’s of Hazzard Boss Hogg, and Devon and Cornwall police’s Boss Hogg

The merging of crime and politics seems such a dangerous idea that it’s no wonder it didn’t receive a mandate at the polls, and now we learn that the police authority officials have to stay in place until at least 2014, with absolutely no provision made for this new role!

So let’s be clear about this. Now we have a political appointee ‘heading’ policing, having received no mandate from elections costing £100 million.

We have the police authority administrative support network required to stay in place and a committee of 19-21 overseeing PCC decisions. In addition, the PCC is being paid between £85 and £100k pa.

And this replaced a police authority made up of a majority of elected councillors and some additional independent members, which made up a committee of approximately 19. None of whom received a salary.

It seems like we are paying a hell of a lot of money for this ‘flagship’ reform – it’s no wonders why the ‘omnishambles’ tag has stuck! (or rather there has been success turning the omnishambles into permashambles).

Rather than spunking all this money up the wall in such straightened times, and undermining the idea of policing by consensus, it might have been worthwhile putting some governmental marketing muscle into what police authorities did and how they could represent the views of the electorate. This would not only have been cheaper, but worth a go before churning the system again – mind you the police service should be grateful its not the health service- at least this PCC stuff is just unwanted and unnecessary rather than destroying the ethos of a hugely successful public service.

God help us with this increasingly laughable attempt at government – well it would be were so many not on the receiving end of its increasingly desperate and nasty attempts to govern.