John Prescott - The Commissioner

February 11, 2012 Editor

Former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has announced his intentions to become one of Britain’s first elected police and crime commissioners. Prescott who will face the polls in November if selected to stand following being nominated, said he would spend the next few months consulting the public before drafting the manifesto he would use to campaign for the up to £100,000 a year job. The new PCC model was introduced by the government in order to have directly elected police and crime commissioners to make a single individual answerable to the public on policing and crime issues. They will have the power to hire and fire chief constables and set their forces budget and “strategic direction”.Yvette Cooper, shadow home secretary said in an opinion piece last year that

By giving (police commissioners) unprecedented political power over policing, the government is ripping up important checks and balances, and threatening political impartiality in the police

So, how you can bring this into your politics units:

1) Show how the Coalition government has moved away from Thatcher’s years. Thatcher did not like localism; she abolished the GLC (Greater London Council)

2) As an example in a democracy question, with regards to how to engage voters. It can be argued that by introducing more local roles they are engaging the local communities or it can be argued by introducing more elections they are disengaging people in voting by flooding them with elections

3) You can use this example to suggest that the coalition is a continuation of New Labour; they introduced the GLA and London Mayor. Constitutionally, the London Mayor is London’s own elected Police and Crime Commissioner.

Linda Epstein Here's a great clip from the US crime drama 'The Wire' - the problem with elected police commissioners/mayorsDisclaimer: clip contains one instance of bad language.