HAMPSHIRE POLICE AUTHORITY SUBMITS FORMAL RESPONSE TO POLICING GREEN PAPER CONSULTATION
| Published: 10th October 2008 16:08 |
Hampshire Police Authority has told the Home Office to reconsider its proposal for directly elected Crime and Policing representatives, or face the risk of it overshadowing the positive aspects of its Policing Green Paper.
Today (October 10) marks the end of a three-month consultation period on Government proposals to improve the way policing and community safety is run at local and national levels.
The Green Paper contains plans to reduce bureaucracy in the police service and ideas to forge closer links between police forces and local authorities, proposals which have been widely welcomed.
However, to encourage a greater involvement from local residents in policing matters, the Government proposes to include directly elected ‘crime and policing representatives', who would be elected to sit on Police Authorities and to chair Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships, existing multi-agency organisations that focus on crime and disorder matters.
The Hampshire Police Authority has conducted wide-ranging consultation in the past three months, gaining the views of residents through an IPSOS MORI survey, and by holding a conference with senior figures from local authorities and other organisations in the two counties with an interest in crime and disorder issues.
Councillor Jacqui Rayment, Chair of Hampshire Police Authority, said:
"As a Police Authority, we represent all residents and as such, we need to take account of their views when responding to such a key piece of consultation.
It was probably more important to get the thoughts of residents, local authorities and other agencies actively involved in policing about this particular paper, because it could be seen that Police Authority members have a vested interest in the outcome. Therefore, we wanted to prove to the Home Office that our response to their proposals was not only the opinions of the Police Authority, but of the people of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight as well."
The IPSOS MORI survey showed that residents were interested in having a greater say in the way local policing is run, but they would not be prepared to see an increase in Council Tax to pay for this.
"That finding told us that the current Government proposal for directly elected Crime and Policing Representatives is the wrong solution. It would be costly, introduce politicisation into Police Authorities, and we haven't seen any evidence why we need to change the current system in the first place,"
said Cllr Rayment.
"In the current climate, the financial side of things should not be underestimated. The money for elections, the allowances for these additional representatives and the associated costs that would come with a larger authority has to be found from somewhere, and with no extra funding from central Government, coupled with no desire from the public to see Council Tax rise, frontline policing could be affected.
It is a significant proposal, and as a result of our conference with local authorities and other organisation, it is clear that it is overshadowing what is generally a positive set of ideas.
The reduction in bureaucracy is something police officers and the public have been requested for a long time, and it finally looks like something is being done, which we welcome. We're also pleased to see efforts to further reduce the perceived culture of policing to targets, with proposals put forward to cut the number of targets set by Government."
The full response to the Home Office can be found on the Hampshire Police Authority's website: www.hampshirepoliceauthority.org.
The Police Authority now has to wait to find out how the Government will respond to its submissions, but it is widely expected that reference to a Policing Bill will be included in the Queen's Speech in December.
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