Police Commissioners will be a revolution in policing

In an interview with The Information Daily at the Conservative Party conference last week in Birmingham, Lord Gordon Wasserman spoke about how the new role of Commissioner will offer local communities the chance to influence the way the police force is run.

On 15 November, voters in 41 areas across England and Wales will elect a Police and Crime Commissioner who will be responsible for the policing in their local area.

Lord Wasserman said, “Policing is a local matter in my view, [...] of course it has national implications [...] but most crime is local, it is about local communities.”

“For the first time, the PCC will enable those people who live in local communities to influence their police force through a locally elected individual,  instead of waiting for the Home Office to manage policing.”

“I think it’s a revolution in policing because it is now made local policing responsible to local indviduals,” he said.

“When [the public] recognise how important these jobs are, when they recognise that this person will control the policing resources for their community they will very soon come out [and vote] in the next election.”

The government advisor declared, “This is the beginning. In four years time when we have the next [election], they will all come out and vote.”

When asked whether the government should do more to promote the election in November, Lord Wasserman said it was up to the rest of us to take an interest in the election, and not the government’s responsibility.

He noted that “There are plenty of people who have been negative about this extension of democracy. That’s what it is. It’s a big extension of local democracy.”

Yet he concluded, “It is now the law of the land. We have elections on November 15 and people should seize this opportunity to vote.”