Elected chief ‘will force our police to behave’

Damian Green compared the election of the first police and crime commissioners (PCCs) next month with the ongoing overhauls of politics, banking and the media, telling the Yorkshire Post he believes “greater transparency leads to better behaviour.”

Yorkshire and the North of England have seen a string of scandals involving senior police officers over the past 18 months, culminating in the publication of the Hillsborough Independent Panel report.

Hundreds of officers at South Yorkshire Police remain under investigation as a result of the panel’s findings, while the chief constable of West Yorkshire Police, Sir Norman Bettison, is facing calls for his resignation amid two separate misconduct inquiries by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

Meanwhile the chief constable of Cleveland Police, Sean Price, has just been sacked for gross misconduct after being branded “shameful” and a “bully” by the same watchdog.

The chief constable of Cumbria Police, Stuart Hyde, was suspended last month over misconduct allegations, and last year the then-chief constable of North Yorkshire Police, Graham Maxwell, escaped with a final warning following claims of nepotism. His contract was not renewed.

Asked if directly-elected commissioners could really be expected to come in and solve such a crisis of confidence, Mr Green said: “It’s a lot to ask, but I think the areas where there are really serious issues of confidence illustrate precisely why you want and need PCCs.

“You will have an elected individual whose sole responsibility is to hold the police to account, so he or she will be doing nothing else but making sure behaviour is proper.

“But also, chief constables and police at all levels will know they are now (accountable) to a locally-elected person, and I think that will inevitably change behaviour.

“We’ve seen in a lot of other institutions, including in the House of Commons, that greater transparency leads to better behaviour. We’ve seen it in banking, we’ve seen it in journalism, we’ve seen it in politics.”

Mr Green, who was handed his role last month in the Government reshuffle, said having directly-elected leaders will mean forces are moving with the times.

“The world is becoming a more transparent place,” he said. “It’s easier to find information now, it’s easier to transmit information now. The result of that is all big important institutions are having to account for themselves more quickly and more fully than they ever have before.

“That’s true of the police, and the election of these PCCs is a significant step forward in making the police more accountable and more transparent.”

Mr Green declined to give his personal backing to Sir Norman Bettison, who faces two separate inquiries by the IPCC and appears to have lost the confidence of his own police authority.

“I think at this sensitive time, especially with elections coming up, I will leave that currently to the police authority and to the newly-elected PCC, whoever it is,” the Minister said.

“I don’t think, particularly at this time, the Police Minister should intervene in local decisions.”