She thinks a mayor would likely appoint an unelected deputy to do the work of the crime commissioner, but ends with: “Trying to bottom out Prisoners Building Homes, is where I’d be going next, because I think that’s the most innovative thing anybody has ever invented.” – Owl
Crime commissioner warns replacement may not be accountable to public
Alison Hernandez said she has been ‘disturbed’ at the way the Government has justified the abolition of crime commissioners
Carl Eve Crime Reporter www.devonlive.com
The announcement today by the Government that it would abolish the role of Police and Crime Commissioners has understandably been somewhat of a shock to those who hold that post, but Devon and Cornwall Commissioner Alison Hernandez has said she’s ‘disturbed’ as the justification which has been used to carry out the sweeping change.
Speaking to DevonLive Alison Hernandez, Crime Commissioner for Devon and Cornwall, confirmed there was an impending sense of doom after the Labour government’s previous announcement that it intended to establish mayoral authorities, saying that it was always known to her that the government’s aim was to transfer the powers of policing into mayoral models.
However, she observed that such a new system was not currently in place in the South West and there was no firm timeline as to when it would be. As such, while her role now had an end date of May 2028, nothing was even close to being prepared to take over the responsibilities of the Crime Commissioner.
Asked if this meant the Government had to get the regional mayoral system in place in the South West by May 2028, she explained: “I would like to say they have to have, but they don’t.”
She revealed: “They’ve come up with an alternative option for areas that don’t have a mayor – and this is my worry, because from what I’ve heard the minister say in her announcement, it will basically be four leaders of councils appointing somebody to do the day job that will probably cost the same as me, but will be unelected. So I don’t quite see the point in that.
“They [the council leaders] are not even directly elected. They’re directly elected to a ward and then appointed by the group. So you’ve got unelected people putting into an unelected position. I mean, it’s just jobs for the boys, really, putting an unelected person in place to do the job that I’m doing, probably costing the same as me without the democratic mandate.”
Alison said she would like to push for a Devon and Cornwall mayor, saying it would be better for the people of the two counties and the Isles of Scilly, “to be able to hold someone to account if their policing is failing them” adding that a Devon and Cornwall Mayor would effectively be like the Crime Commissioner “but with more powers.”
She said such a mayor would likely appoint an unelected deputy to do the work of the crime commissioner “but at least the accountability sits with the elected individual, but they’ll cover the whole patch.
“The South West is one of the least coterminous areas with other agencies than anywhere else in the country and we’re likely to have the least elected mayors being established, which means we’ll have less of a voice in government and less of an ability to secure investment from the government in our patches.
“So I’m particularly worried about that because that democratic deficit for a mayor is actually a voice of those people to government and to secure investment. A lot of money will flow through mayors, not through leaders of councils.”
Alison said she recognised that all force areas struggled with government funding, querying why so much money is “plowed into the Met” and other metropolitan areas like Manchester and Merseyside “and the rest of us suffer”.
She said: “We’d like to see more evening up of that funding. We’ve got a particular issue in the South West, which is the summer, which is not recognised in our funding formula.
“I will say the last government did implement the second homes doubling of council tax and that has been a game changer, so I do recognize there has been an effort to help areas that have lots of second homes to be able to have an investment. That was worth £6m to Devon and Cornwall Police last year. It’s not small fry.”
Speaking of her fears for the future, she admitted she was worried for her team who would be out of a job, but noted that the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) may now see staff leave to find more secure jobs over the next two and a half years, which meant “we may even struggle to function and carry out my statutory duty.”
“As I am an executive politician, which means I have powers to make decisions and I’m a roll your sleeves up and get on with the job kind of person, I actually do have skills and abilities to be able to do some things myself, but I am nervous [of the future of the Office].
“That’s why I want to spend my time now influencing what comes next so that the people of Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly must get what they need to feel confident in policing, and the fact that you’re not going to spend the same amount of money doing something just in an unelected way.”
Alison said that she fully recognised that her role is an elected one and that she is fully accountable to the public, adding: “That’s why I’m really clear when I have conversations about putting the council tax up every year, I’m really clear and transparent about what I expect that to be spent on.
“So that’s how we’ve opened so many police stations, that’s why we’ve got record numbers of police officers in the force, because I’ve always said I’ll only spend it on investment in our communities, and I’m really proud of what we’ve done.
“I’m just very, very disturbed that the two evidence bases that they’re using to get rid of us are extremely weak – one of which is our turnout, and I’ve already said they could just move the election to align with council elections. The second is the fact that the cost that they’ll save with that election and it’s just not there, I’m afraid. They just need to move the election and save the money that way – they’ll end up appointing someone that costs the same as me, but they’ll be unelected.
“Most local elections are round a 30 to 35 per cent turnout. I think our biggest issue is that they’ve left us in a standalone election.
“There are often multiple elections that happen at once, and that is a better way to save money. It means everybody can go out and choose who they want to represent them at different levels of government.
“We’ve got so many by-elections going on at the moment, people don’t even realise they’ve got a by-election!
“If you have elections out of sync, which Police and Crime Commissioner ones are, then people don’t take as much notice.”
For her remaining time, Alison said she has a number of key priorities she wants to see through.
She said: “One is making sure that we don’t let this disrupt our day-to-day running of my office and the force.
“I’ve spoken to the Chief Constable [James Vaughan] and we will endeavour to do our utmost and keep our energy going.
“While this is all happening, my team will continue to be the appeals body for complaints.
“We’ll continue to support victim services in the way that we do and we’ll still be a correspondence if people want me to help them in things, they can still reach out to me.
“I will endeavour to make sure we still carry on doing the job.
“But the one thing I really need to sort out is the Prisoners Building Homes program we established in Devon and Cornwall that has now gone national.
“The reason we’ve been unable to really work with that in the way that we’ve wanted is because I don’t have a power of competence like a council does. I can’t set up companies, but it needs to be set up into a company to actually manage it properly.
“Trying to bottom out Prisoners Building Homes, is where I’d be going next, because I think that’s the most innovative thing anybody has ever invented.”
East Devon Watch 