Voting for the police

Methinks the local blue nest may have got themselves a little confused over their own party’s policies. There’s a motion on the agenda for the coming week’s council meeting supporting the election of police chief constables.

10. Motion – Elected Chief Constables
Councillor Nick Martin will move and Councillor Peter Greenhalgh will second:

This Council supports the concept of a local, directly elected chief constable or commissioner of police. This Council ask the Leader of the Council to write to

a) the Home Secretary to offer Swindon as a location for a pilot scheme.

b) the chair of the Wiltshire Police Authority to see if the Authority would support the application for a pilot scheme.

Which is a little odd, because the one thing their party’s policy makers have explicitly excluded is the election of chief constables — directly elected commissioners to replace appointed police authorities yes, but not directly elected chief constables.

I’d prefer the local police to be concentrating of reducing crime, not on fighting elections.