Broken policing needs money – not a makeover

Reform can be a frustrating business. In the last days of the Soviet system, the grim glasnost joke was how, when Gorbachev’s train broke down outside Moscow, he stoutly rejected his predecessors’ solution of shooting the drivers and sending their families to Siberia. Instead, he and his politburo colleagues formed a semi-circle around the engine and joining hands, they shouted loudly, “the train isn’t working, the train isn’t working”.

It is hard to disguise the same emblematic pointlessness which underpins government plans for each police force area to elect its own commissioner in May 2012 – even if the Home Secretary insists it is intended to “re-establish the links between the police and the public”.

It was inevitable that local government would make its own bid but whilst the Western Mail has understandably chosen to focus on unflattering comments by Dyfed-Powys’ chief constable, a tough reality for the town-hall brigade, who have been encouraged by successive governments to regard themselves as community leaders, is that their views do not so much lack merit as they do actual relevance in the debate.

In truth, the WLGA carries less weight in such matters as the network of local police forums set up in recent times. Let’s be honest, the only occasion that anyone even remembers the existence of police authorities in Wales is when the media report on attempted budgetary blackmail by the gang of four. Could directly elected commissioners be any worse? Perhaps not - but there is no evidence that they would be any better, either.

Devolving administration down to modern-day equivalents of the old watch committees presents its own inherent dangers but the fact that the idea has no Assembly sponsors puts all the past talk of inclusiveness and partnership by Rodders and his successor in perspective. Local government in Wales is still perceived as little more than a sub-contractor of the Welsh Assembly – a fact epitomised by an outbreak of inter-government consensus that councils need to be kept firmly in their place.

Very few at the sharp end are under any illusion that the rationale behind the gimmicky of commissioners is that they will present a convenient focus for public anger when the consequences of having to police the streets with a lot less resources becomes painfully apparent. According to recent research, insurance groups estimate premiums will rise exponentially to match a predicted 15% increase in crime & disorder. Analysts foresee the inevitable return to the scene of the private security patrol firm which flourished in the 1980s as public spending on policing fell.

The same alarming figures are set to find their way into ACPO and Police Federation briefings sent to MPs of all parties who will in turn be seeking to ‘moderate’ the Home Secretary’s reforming zeal. The expectation among the thin blue line is that something resembling a status quo will emerge. They know as well as anyone that, in politics, fixes have a habit of becoming a fudge.