Police, Crime and Fire Commissioner roles like the one being contested in North Yorkshire should be abolished - Yorkshire Post Letters

In North Yorkshire we are facing an unnecessary and costly by-election for a Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner next week.

We all know that this by-election was caused by the incompetence of the Conservative incumbent of this post.

We all know that this incumbent replaced the previous Conservative Commissioner.

These Conservative Commissioners have all been elected by a tiny minority of the electorate, as the majority of people cannot see the point of this unnecessary level of bureaucracy and don’t

vote.

We all know that the post of Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner was created to give the Conservative Party (in the main) direct political control of the police.

As a consequence, our police forces seem more concerned about political “crimes” than they do about keeping people safe on the streets.

What is less well known is that the millions of pounds spent on the office of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner is taken out of the police budget, meaning less resources for real policing, less money for preventing and solving crime.

The role of Police, Crime and Fire Commissioner is a distraction from real policing and should be abolished.

Meanwhile, I beg your readers not to give the Conservative party a third strike at this role and instead vote for a candidate independent of politics, a candidate who will put the safety of our citizens first.