Police Commissioners? Pure spin

I was one among the 85% or so voters to ignore the much-trumpeted introduction of police commissioners in yesterday's elections. I stayed at home. My main reason for treating the whole unnecessary cock-up with contempt is the abuse of language, the spin, that proponents of this completely nonsensical notion have used in an attempt to have their way. It would be 'more democratic' than present arrangements, they claim. I, for one, would be interested to see what evidence they can produce in support.

Existing police authorities are already made up of elected representatives, with most of them consisting of nine local councillors and eight independent members, at least one of whom should be a magistrate.

How oversight of a police force can be considered  'more democratic' when exercised by one elected person than by nine eludes me, but then 'democracy' is a slippery word that can be given all kinds of spin.

Policy Exchange is a think-tank, one of the bodies supporting the introduction of US-style police commissioners. The quality of its thinking might be suggested by the quality of its language of advocacy in one of today's national newspapers:

Policy Exchange conducted a questionnaire of Chief Constables (half of whom responded) for an upcoming paper, Policing 2020.

In it we asked Chiefs what they thought of the support they received from care homes. Not a single Chief was content with the support they received from them.

One police force had 3,500 missing people in 2009-10, costing them £3.3 million. Over three quarters of this demand came from care homes, with 2.5% of individuals creating 26% of the demand and single care homes being responsible for over 100 missing people reports a year.

Despite the obvious benefits of proactive intervention with the few individuals and care homes that created most of the demand, there was instead an over reliance on the police.

Care homes were calling the police if a child was just 10 minutes late for a meeting and generally negating their responsibilities in loco parentis.

Police and Crime Commissioners should be their police force’s greatest advocate and change this, by using their powerful media and political clout to encourage police partners, wherenecessary, to raise their game.

Clear? If this was part of an essay submitted in an English language exam its author would have been given a fail. Yet this bureaucratic bilge comes from one of the bodies that advises government. It's enough to make you weep, that and the fact that £75m of our money has been wasted on a stupid political stunt.