police commissioners

x posted with Phyllis - how can we be epected to make an informed choice without the information going out to the public at large?

What troubles me is that these elections are less than 3 weeks away, and I've not heard anything about either what the role involves / what a Police Commissioner is/does, / or what I should be looking for in a candidate. Nor have I heard who the candidates are, or why they think we should vote for them.

I don't think the chief of police (ie the commissioner) should be political, and I think that he will be under this system. An considering not voting, not least because I have NO info on any of the candidates.

I think people are worried about all kinds of things on a local level. At the moment, I could be wrong, but there's no obvious channel of communication for anyone, vocal or otherwise, to express concerns to the police or say where I think their priorities should like. It all seems to be imposed and the people left out of the decision making.

Why is it a waste of money, Already? Genuine question - Cogito has given some good reasons for doing this, but what are the counter arguments?

To answer my own question, I suppose one of them might be the main problem with democracy, ie that if someone wants to be elected, they tend to pander to the most powerful and vociferous members of the public - who are usually not the majority - and that would skew the legal system in some way.

I suppose what I am thinking of is local hysteria about perceived risks prompting a commissioner to put up more CCTV cameras when it would be better if s/he put more money into investigating domestic abuse cases.

Is that the sort of thing people are worried about?

Funnily enough, I just got some communication through from one of our candidates and was about to do a bit of research. In principle, I think it could be a good thing that the police feel more accountable to the people of the local area rather than just the Home Secretary. With investigations into abuse of police power going on such as Hillsborough, it could be healthier if Commissioners were fearful of being booted by the masses. Won't know for sure until we see them in action.