As a former special constable and Police and Crime Commissioner for Bedfordshire, I have witnessed policing from the frontline to the boardroom. The government's recent announcement to scrap the PCC model, branding it a "failed experiment", strikes me as not just wrong, but dangerously naive. This move, part of a wider policing overhaul, prioritises political manoeuvring over genuine reform, and the public will bear the cost.
The Real Motive Behind the Scrapping of PCCs
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood's plan to abolish Police and Crime Commissioners is framed as a quest for efficiency, promising savings of £100 million over the parliament. However, this looks more like a classic Westminster tactic: declare a system 70 per cent functional a failure, only to replace it with something remarkably similar. If anyone believes those savings will be reinvested directly into frontline policing, they might as well believe I am training to become the first non-Catholic pope. The reality is that this is a political power grab, not a public safety initiative.
The Unique Role of PCCs in Policing Accountability
Introduced by the Conservatives in 2012, PCCs were designed to make policing more accountable to the public. Elected by local communities, they had the power to set police budgets, create five-year crime reduction plans, and appoint or dismiss chief constables. Their sole metric of success was the safety of their county, making them the only non-police figures in the room focused entirely on policing. In my three years as Bedfordshire's PCC, this focus allowed me to lobby successfully for additional special grants funding, preventing cuts to specialist units and preserving community support officers.
The Risks of Handing Policing to Regional Mayors
Under the new model, policing will be handed to regional mayors, who must juggle it alongside housing, transport, and other priorities. When forced to choose between funding a new bus lane or a burglary team, history suggests policing will lose out, thinning the already stretched "thin blue line" further. Mayors lack the dedicated capacity that PCCs had, making it unlikely they can advocate as effectively for police resources. Everything cannot be a priority at once, but for PCCs, policing was the only priority.
The Maturation of the PCC System and Missed Reform Opportunities
I will admit the PCC experiment had its wobbles initially. The first generation in 2012 was a mixed bag, with some poor appointments and operational disputes. However, by the third cohort in 2021, the role had matured. Boundaries were clearer, legislation was tighter, and the system worked better, with stronger convening powers within the criminal justice system. Instead of building on this progress, Mahmood's white paper reverts to the "golden era" of police authorities—15-person committees prone to indecision and political gridlock. Reforming PCCs by cutting office costs, streamlining decisions, and enhancing HMICFRS evaluations would have been a smarter, more effective approach.
The Dangers of Centralising Power in Whitehall
A more sobering aspect of this purge is the centralisation of power. By removing local PCCs, the government is handing the Home Secretary a remote control for every police force in the country. We are trading local accountability for a politician who can direct priorities from a desk in Whitehall. This fails the basic test of political foresight: the powers seized by one party today will eventually be inherited by rivals, a chilling thought for democratic oversight. Already, every mayoral policing area has been placed into special measures at some point over the last decade, highlighting the risks of this model.
Conclusion: A Costly Restructuring Nobody Voted For
We are now embarking on another cycle of major, messy, and costly restructuring—something nobody voted for. The government's rush to scrap PCCs, rather than reform them, undermines local accountability and threatens frontline policing. As someone who has seen the hidden machinery of policing, I urge a reconsideration. Trust me, we will miss Police and Crime Commissioners when they are gone, and the savings promised will likely vanish into the ether of political expediency.
