This in from the Hampshire Police authority – Ed.
The Home Office has launched a consultation on its plans for major reform of the police service.
These plans include:
- Replacing Police Authorities with an elected Policing and Crime Commissioner
- Creating a new National Crime Agency to deal with serious organised crime and border security
- Promoting greater individual responsibility for keeping neighbourhoods safe, by creating a clear role for the public in cutting crime.
Consulting to start shortly
Hampshire Police Authority will begin consulting with local communities shortly and will be feeding back your views in a formal response to the Home Office in September.
Cllr. Jacqui Rayment, Chair of Hampshire Police Authority, said: “We welcome aspects of the paper, such as the focus on reducing bureaucracy and issues of workforce reform. We want to work with the Government during this challenging period.
“In the next two years we will face difficult financial decisions and we must ensure that we remain focused on meeting the needs of the communities of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight while protecting frontline policing. However, personally I wonder if now is the right time to be introducing additional and costly elections that could cost Hampshire and the Isle of Wight approximately £2 million, the equivalent of almost 70 police officers.
Directly-elected Commissioner
“I also have concerns regarding the introduction of a directly elected Commissioner as the Government has not stated in detail how it will work in practice, or how it fits with the policing landscape as a whole. We need to be reassured that a single Commissioner can represent the needs of 1.8 million people across the whole of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
“I feel greatly honoured to have served on the police authority for 12 years and to have been Chair for almost 3 years and these new proposals do mean that as Chair of Hampshire Police Authority I am facing abolition. But this is not the reason why I’m speaking out, it’s because I am extremely proud of what the police authority has achieved and I truly care about policing in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
Crime down by 10 per cent this year
During the last year alone we have reduced crime by 10 per cent, and all this and more has been achieved whilst having one of the very lowest levels of police council tax across counties in England and Wales.”
If you would like to contact Hampshire Police Authority to give your views, please email [email protected]
