Police and crime commissioners to go

I read in this morning's FT, that police and crime commissioners are to go when their terms expire in 2028. We are told that it is an experiment that has failed and that £20m of the £100m saved will be spent on more policemen - or, at least, on 'policing'. All we are told about the case for change is the snip above. We are told that there is a White Paper to come, which will, no doubt, include all sorts of stuff, but the overall impression given is that a change has been floated to test the reactions of those involved. I don't suppose that the public at large will have much to say about it, although the media may get exercised on their account.

There appears to be no attempt to set out why the experiment was made in the first place or how it has worked out. We are not told what the Scots get up to - or indeed what anyone else gets up to. In the US, for example, I believe that they elect their chief constables, rather than electing a minder. One supposes that diligent civil servants inside the Home Office have written at length about these matters, but no-one seems to be sharing.

Bing turns up the statement at reference 2.

Google's AI assistant offers me a little essay about the whole business, more or less summarising the piece in the FT, together with a pointer to the year old statement at reference 3.

I then poke the government web site to get the promising looking screen snapped above.

But clicking on the first item does not deliver. A set of documents which has not been updated for a year, so unlikely to include anything bearing on the present matter.

As an exercise in democracy, not terribly impressive - not that I suppose other countries are much better - and I dare say plenty are a lot worse. Floating the change in this way is indeed a way to test opinion, but why can we not be given something more to bite on? Something which must exist somewhere in the Home Office. We are not a bunch of Trumps, making up policy on the hoof - at least one hopes not.

I dare say also that the standard of PCCs and their work varies a good deal across the country, but one does not envy them their job of keeping the show on the road until they are phased out in three years time.

Some time later

I vaguely remember thinking, back in 2012, that the invention of these commissioners seemed terribly half-baked, with duties, roles and resources all seeming terribly vague, at least from the outside. Checking, coverage at reference 4 all looks rather thin - but at least there is no confusion with the Parochial Church Councils of reference 5.

I then moved on to what was my only involvement with a PCC, the one for West Yorkshire. The rather unsatisfactory business of a fatal hard stop in or near Huddersfield back in 2016. An entirely proper matter for a PCC to take an interest in. A story which closed for me at reference 6.

And then there is the troubling case of Nurse Letby, last noticed at the end of reference 7. But while I dare say there are lessons for the police here, in which the PCC concerned might take an interest, the main issue now is the question of guilt, not of procedure. Quite different in that respect from Huddersfield.

From where I associate to the novel 'Thérèse Desqueyroux', last outed at reference 8. A novel which is turning out to be the story of a crime and its consequences from the inside, from inside the head of the criminal. I wonder now what sort of a splash in the media such a thing might make, were it to happen now? As it happens, a crime involving near fatal variation in the number of drops of medicine for a bad heart - the sort of thing which still happens here, in real life.

While the story at reference 9 is depressing in an entirely different way.

References

Reference 1: Police and crime commissioners to be abolished in England and Wales: Abolition of posts expected to save £100mn annually and allow £20mn each year to be reinvested in policing - Robert Wright, Financial Times - 2025.

Reference 2: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/police-and-crime-commissioners-to-be-scrapped.

Reference 3: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/home-secretary-to-announce-major-policing-reforms.

Reference 4: https://psmv2.blogspot.com/search?q=pcc.

Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parochial_church_council.

Reference 6: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/03/huddersfield.html.

Reference 7: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/07/sweet-clover-and-orchids.html.

Reference 8: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/11/survival.html.

Reference 9: India and Pakistan need mediators not arms suppliers: The countries that helped broker peace earlier this year are now selling advanced weapons to the nuclear-armed neighbours - Tariq Mir, Financial Times - 2025.