Shadow police bodies may pave way for elected commissioners

Sheffield Council’s cabinet is due to discuss the creation of an “Observer Police and Crime Panel” in South Yorkshire which would be the forerunner of the “real” panel being set up to scrutinise the activities of the police commissioner following his or her election next November.

The new office of police commissioner will replace the current police authorities and will have the power to hire and fire chief constables, set policing priorities and overseeing the budget.

The Home Office wants all police authority areas to have shadow police and crime panels (PCP) in place by next June to help ease through the transition.

The Sheffield Council report, to be discussed on Wednesday, says the South Yorkshire panel will have 12 members, 10 drawn from the area’s four local authorities, plus two co-opted members.

Sheffield expects to have at least three of the 10 council members to reflect its population size.

The report says two of those would be drawn from the party in power, currently Labour, and one from the largest opposition party, the Liberal Democrats.

It is envisaged that the members of the shadow panel will remain members of the actual panel when it is formally created to help continuity during the changeover.

Guidance has not yet been received from the Home Office as to whether members of the new panels could be drawn from councillors currently sitting on police authorities or whether this might present a conflict of interest.

The report says: “An ‘observer’ PCP would be able to test out some of the issues and practicalities of the two-part governance arrangement, and allow members to begin to build up their knowledge and skills.”