Hannah Al-Othman read law at Durham as an undergraduate. She now works for Shadow Equalities Minister Kate Green MP, and is studying for an MA in News Journalism. This post was originally posted on Hannah’s Comments.
The 41 new Police and Crime Commissioners have started the job, although for most it remains unclear exactly what they are going to be doing.
For more than a quarter it seems that their first task will be to recruit new Chief Constables after many have stepped down – in some cases because they did not want to serve under a Commissioner. One previous Chief Constable of the Gloucestershire force, Tony Melville, resigned citing “grave concerns” over PCCs, saying he would rather stand aside than be governed by a Commissioner.
As much as the police did not want PCCs, neither did the public. The elections recorded an historically low turnout of less than 15% nationwide, with one polling station in Newport registering an appalling 0% turnout. Many people chose not to vote in the elections because they did not know enough about the role of the Police Commissioners, because they had received no information from any of the political parties, because they did not understand what the election was about, or because they did not agree with the idea of politicising the police.
The turnout was so low that the legitimacy of PCCs is now being called into question by many, and the Electoral Commission is launching an investigation into the process. (more…)
Inherently Human 