The Home Affairs Select Committee agreed this week to take further evidence in response to the controversy over plans which could politicise police authorities.

Martin Salter, Labour MP for Reading West, has written to Keith Vaz MP, Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, to express his concern about the proposal to introduce direct elections for new police authorities in the Policing Green Paper.

In his letter Mr Salter said:

“Police authorities’ current membership of local councillors and independent community members represents the interests of all local communities and is independent of specific party political considerations.  The existing proposals are likely to damage these partnerships and may ultimately work against the intentions of the green paper to improve accountability and services. There is cross-party opposition to the Government’s proposals from the Local Government Association.

There is a significant risk that direct elections would provide single issue groups and extremists with a powerful new opportunity to increase local influence.  Public confidence may also be undermined if directly elected representatives make promises they cannot deliver, or if policing is represented by single issue groups or extremists.”

Mr Salter requested a one-off evidence session at the Home Affairs Select Committee, calling for witnesses from the Association of Police Authorities (APA) and the Local Government Association (LGA).

The Home Affairs Select Committee has agreed to examine this issue at a meeting on 16^th December.

The Committee has already expressed reservations in its report on Policing in the 21^st Century, claiming that an “additional layer of representation” could well “undermine partnership working between the police and local authorities.”

Speaking from his Westminster office, Martin Salter said:

“I’m pleased my colleagues on the Home Affairs Committee have agreed to re-visit this important issue.  Since the proposals were published in the Green Paper we know that the BNP and other extremist groups are now planning to target police authorities which is the last thing we need.  Confidence in the fairness and impartiality of the police service is vital to good community relations.”

Cllr Tony Page, Reading’s representative on the Thames Valley Police Authority said:

“I’m delighted that the Select Committee is going to invite evidence on what is frankly a potty idea opposed by all Labour, Tory and Lib Dem councillors on the TVPA and nationally by all parties on the Local Government Association.

 Crime isn’t a narrow single issue to be dealt with by electing a single man or woman. It needs to be tackled in the round with effective local partnerships between councils, police, NHS and other agencies. The real challenge for national and local government, including here in Reading, is to improve the way we engage our local communities in building on the successful introduction of neighbourhood policing. You don’t improve public confidence by making the system more complicated or putting a premium on raising the fear of crime as a means of getting elected to a police authority.”

Chairman of the Association of Police Authorities, Bob Jones, has claimed that direct elections would re-inject party politics into policing.  He said:

“Taking party politics out of policing through the balanced composition of local councillors and independent members of police authorities has been one of the biggest policing successes of the last twelve years.  Police authorities have also initiated and supported other substantial policing innovations such as crime mapping, community consultation and neighbourhood policing.

Improving public confidence in policing must be our key aim for the future, but direct elections to police authorities are not the solution.  Indeed this is more likely to undermine confidence if directly elected representatives make promises they cannot deliver, or if policing is hijacked by single issue groups or extremists.

Yes, people want more ownership and say over local policing services, but the best way to do that is through ensuring the police are more responsive and accessible at a local level.”