The Political Clear-Out That Changed Nothing
Police Minister Sarah Jones arrived in the Commons promising a surprise announcement that initially sounded like genuine reform. She declared the abolition of police and crime commissioners, positions introduced when Theresa May served as Home Secretary. The move initially appeared to be the political equivalent of a thorough spring cleaning.
However, just like a homeowner who clears shelves only to immediately refill them with new trinkets from Ross-on-Wye, Ms Jones promptly revealed that the eliminated commissioners would be replaced by mayors or new strategic policing boards. These new positions would include 'lead' members receiving additional financial incentives, essentially recreating the bureaucracy she claimed to be cutting.
The Commissioner Legacy: High Costs, Questionable Value
The original police commissioner system had become increasingly controversial. Some commissioners received salaries approaching £100,000 annually and maintained staff of up to 50 people. In one particularly egregious example, the Leicestershire commissioner paid a disgraced former chief constable £100,000 per year as an adviser.
Despite these excesses, MPs from across the political spectrum offered praise for their local commissioners during the Commons debate. Descriptors like 'sterling work,' 'great work,' and 'excellent' filled the chamber. Sir Roger Gale, Conservative MP for Herne Bay, notably praised the Kent commissioner for 'working closely with chief constables' - a relationship that critics suggest might have been part of the problem.
Missed Opportunity for Genuine Reform
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp dismissed the estimated £20 million annual savings from the changes, comparing the reshuffle to 'rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.' He used this analogy not once but twice during the debate.
Ms Jones responded by claiming the government was 'surging our neighbourhood policing capacity,' but failed to provide substantial details about how this would manifest in practice. The debate highlighted what critics see as a fundamental issue: the constant desire for consensus and terror of public disagreement that prevents meaningful police reform.
The original police commissioners were introduced amid Labour concerns they would 'politicise' law enforcement. However, critics argue that police forces were already influenced by what the article describes as 'social-worker dogma,' with officers allegedly ignoring crimes that most concerned the public while responding aggressively to controversial social media posts.
Rather than seizing the opportunity to return policing oversight to Parliament, where MPs could directly represent constituents' concerns, the government opted to create another layer of local supervision. This approach maintains what critics describe as the gutless, waste-tolerating nature of current policing governance.
