The real lesson of this fiasco is that we need elected police chiefs

cuffleyburgers

Good luck with your campaign gentlemen.

The one good thing that might come out of the whole New Labour farrago and the general trashing of everything we love most about our country is that the populace will be so sickened by the extreme centralisation, politicisation and generally expensive incompetence of it all that a wholesale adoption of a localised approach to policing, education and healthcare might be come attractive.

In all three areas, localisation will lead to innovation and a spread of best practice that is explicitly outlawed by Brown's insistence on exact equality (ie lowest common denominator) in all areas.

The words Post Code lottery should not be a term of abuse. It should be a sign that the uthority responsible for your post code is incompetent, and should learn from the people next door who have a better solution, and if not, be sacked.

Minnie Ovens

A somewhat dramatic but extremely well thought through article.
A return to localization or, at least, a significant shift back towards authority and responsibility in our counties, towns and villages, with the financial budget shifted as well, is way passed its due date.
Unfortunately I think Westminster in general has bought into the centralization of power and the dumbing down of the education of the electorate in order to brook no arguement.
I find it amusing how the working definition of Democracy changes as people move higher up the political ladder.
It might be more accurate to say that we are governed by benevolent despotism but,of late, the benevolence has lessened with despotism assuming more importance.
We used to have balance in government.
No longer.

Verity

"You disagreed — you, Spectator readers in particular...". Au contaire. Many of us had been banging on about it long before it entered your pretty little heads.

I broadly concur with your arguments, but why are you buggering it up with sheriffs? A police chief should be answerable to no one but the electorate. I don't know what moment of madness motivated you to insert another layer.

In my experience, which is Texas, cities with elected police chiefs have better crime control and better detection figures than places with chiefs appointed by the mayor. (NYC is a noble exception. The chief of police is appointed by the elected mayor and the ones they've had in the last 20 or 25 years have been extremely effective.)

Remove sheriffs from the equation. You don't need that added layer and you do not need anyone standing between the police and the public. No one. The chief of police of a city or area should be directly accountable to the electorate.

I've noticed the British often take a successful American idea and bugger it up because they can't believe that the Americans had thought it through and got it right. Sheriffs would bugger it up.

The citizens will let the chief of police know how pleased they are with his performance at the ballot box. Most chiefs are very alert to this.

Chingford Man

Good article full of sense. Elected police chiefs is the best way to drive all the cultural Marxism out of the police.

Let's have a police chief like Sheriff Joe Arpaio from Arizona. If ever you feel depressed at the easy ride the bad and wicked get in this wretched country, Sheriff Joe's story will cheer you up.

scribbler

What a pity you chose to reproduce the rather jokey opening paragraphs of what is a well-argued and serious piece. It's also a pity I'm late posting this, so no one will read it anyway!

Peter A

The last thing we need is elected police chiefs. They lose their independence and become nothing but cheap politicians themselves, with a permanent eye on the next election.

By all means remove the Home Secretary's power over the Metropolitan Police and make the commissioner (like chief constables) an appointee of - and responsible to - the local police authority.

But we really should not wish to adopt the execrable American system.

Iain

Peter A "But we really should not wish to adopt the execrable American system."

Verity "I've noticed the British often take a successful American idea and bugger it up because they can't believe that the Americans had thought it through and got it right."

There you go!

Verity

Peter A - I always enjoy reading ignorant, America-loathing posts from people who have never experienced the American system. Thank you for reminding me of one of the reasons I scarpered back to N America.

Elected police chiefs do indeed keep an eye on the next election. They know that they have to keep their patch as crime-free as humanly possible otherwise their employer, the voters, will sack them at the next election. Attention to the possibility of being dismissed for non-performance is a great motivator, as every employer knows.

There should be no one standing between the voter (employers of public servants) and the police. No interface. This is a critical area and the citizens should have the power to sack people who aren't keeping their commuities safe.

Texas cities are as safe as any big city can be. That is because the voters choose their own chiefs of police and they have the power to sack them. Plus gun ownership is legal (after background checks), as is "carrying concealed" legal (after further background checks).

An armed society is a polite society. No big burly man in Texas will let a glass door close in the face of a little old lady. That granny might be packin'.

Andy

Verity - 'Texas cities are as safe as any big city can be.'

Dallas????

Verity

Andy - Yes, Dallas is a safe city.

I am assuming from your air of dull-witted triumph that you are thinking that the assassination of one man 44 years ago somehow has a bearing on everyday life in Dallas. A real killer point, so to speak. But it doesn't, and it never did.

See, killing JFK was a political assassination by an individual paid by a foreign power. I think you can probably understand the difference between average people living and working in big Texas cities, with the police doing a pretty effective job of keeping them pretty safe, and the failure of the FBI and whoever the presidential bodyguards were (they wouldn't have left that job to the local police, see ...)to adequately protect the president.

Dallas is a slick, exciting, rich, glossy, high profile city with a police force that guards the citizens. The police are armed and so are many citizens. The Texans like it that way. And George W Bush signed into law the proposal that as criminals don't carry guns openly, honest citizens can also carry concealed.

Andy, check your facts before displaying schoolboy triumphalism.

An armed society is a polite society.

Andy

Verity - sorry, but I live in Fort Worth and know Dallas very well. San Antonio it isn't!

Verity

If police chiefs are elected rather than appointed, it gives the electorate the whip hand. If they are government appointees, the government has the whip hand. As we have seen.

Verity

There are police chiefs in Britain who are contemptuous of the public. If they were dependent on the public for their jobs, they would see things in the clearer light of self-interest.

Second, the police force has been degraded by Blunkett's toy police officers. These should be removed or become private security guards or something. But get shot of them.