The New World-How Chief Constables are going to work with PCC’s

Chief Constable Simon ColeACPO lead for Local Policing and Partnerships Business Area

ACPO lead for Mental Health and Disability Portfolio

Miranda:O wonder!How many goodly creatures are there here!How beauteous mankind is! O brave new worldThat has such people in't!

Prospero:'Tis new to thee.

The Tempest Act 5, scene 1, 181–184

Section 60 PCC Elections Order 2012

No member of a police force for any police area may by word, message, writing or in any other manner, endeavour to persuade any person to give, or dissuade any person from giving his or her vote, whether as an elector or as proxy at PCC election.

‘We have to make this work-we can’t even consider it not working so it has to work’

Sir Hugh Orde

Opportunities:

• Public Debate on Policing

• Enhanced focus on what local people want

• One to one professional relationship

• Better cross agency join up on key issues: -Drink -Drugs -Mental Health -Offender Management -Criminal Justice

• Advocacy

Policing Protocol

The PCC has the legal power and duty to-• Set the strategic direction and objectives of the force• Scrutinise, support and challenge the overall

performance of the force• Hold the Chief Constable to account for the performance

of the force’s officers and staff• Provide the local link between the police and

communities, working to translate the legitimate desires and aspirations of the public into action

• PCC must not fetter the operational independence of the police force and Chief Constable who leads it

Policing Protocol

The Chief Constable holds office under the crown and is:

• Responsible for maintaining the Queen’s Peace, and has direction and control over the force’s officers and staff.

• Accountable to the law for the exercise of police powers, and to the PCC for the delivery of efficient and effective policing, management of resources and expenditure by the police force.

• The operational voice of policing, regularly explaining to the public the operational actions of officers and staff under their command.

‘The fact that the British Police are answerable to the law, that we act on behalf of the community and not under the mantle of Government, makes us the least powerful, the most accountable and therefore the most acceptable police service in the world’

Sir Robert Mark

Strategic Policing Requirement

Threats, actual and prospective, to:• national security• public safety• public order• public confidence

that are of such gravity as to be of national importance or

which can be countered effectively or efficiently only by

national policing capabilities.

National Crime Agency

"I shall be working closely with chief constables, leaders of other law-enforcement organisations, Police Authorities, Police and Crime Commissioners and the Government to ensure that the NCA delivers the maximum protection possible for communities within the resources it has available."

Chief Constable Keith Bristow

Head NCA

• Strategic Direction v/s Operational Independence

• The public face-who says what?

Melton Shooting

‘Police seek and preserve public favour not by catering to public opinion but by constantly demonstrating absolute

impartial service to the law’.

Robert Peel

‘The householder is the victim here  and justice should support them and prosecute the burglars.’

‘Luckily, the media attention made the police and Crown Prosecution Service realise just how strongly people feel about this sort of thing’.

Alan Duncan MP

Tasers-whose decision?

•Knife wielding mentally ill man

•Wheelchair-bound man

•Mentally ill man who stabbed his parents

Tasers-whose decision?

• The Lord Chief Justice dismissed an application seeking to quash the decision to introduce tasers for use by the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

• Eight year old girl seeking two orders:  one quashing the decision of the Chief Constable to introduce tasers for use by the PSNI, and one quashing the decisions of the NI Policing Board that the deployment of tasers was an operational matter for the Chief Constable and its decision to support the Chief Constable in his proposal to

introduce tasers.

Tasers-whose decision?

• The Lord Chief Justice reviewed the legislation establishing the Board and setting out its role and functions.  He concluded that the decision to provide and deploy tasers was an operational decision wholly for the Chief Constable and not a decision for the Board.  

‘Let me be clear: the operations of the police will not be

politicised; who is arrested and how investigations work will not become political decisions. PCCs will not manage the forces that they govern and they will recognise that the only way of making a police force effective is by letting the professionals do their job’.

Theresa May

Supts. Association Conference

11/9/12

Operational Independence

‘No Minister of the Crown can tell him that he must, or must not, keep observation on this place or that; or that he must, or must not, prosecute this man or that one. Nor can any police authority tell him so. The responsibility for law enforcement lies on him. He is answerable to the law and to the law alone’.

Lord Denning 1968

Transparency PCC Oath:

“I do solemnly and sincerely promise that I will serve all the people of Force Area in the office of police and crime commissioner without fear or favour.

“I will act with integrity and diligence in my role and, to the best of my ability, will execute the duties of my office to ensure that the police are able to cut crime and protect the public.

“I will give a voice to the public, especially victims of crime and work with other services to ensure the safety of the community and effective criminal justice.

“I will take all steps within my power to ensure transparency of my decisions, so that I may be properly held to account by the public.

“I will not seek to influence or prevent any lawful and reasonable investigation or arrest, nor encourage any police action save that which is lawful and justified within the bounds of this office.”

Summary

• PCC = ‘What and Why’

• CC= ‘How’

The New World-How Chief Constables are going to work with PCC’s

Chief Constable Simon ColeACPO lead for Local Policing and Partnerships Business Area

ACPO lead for Mental Health and Disability Portfolio