The second theme of State of Wales’ look at the justice system and independence moves to the police. As is the drill, it’s worth looking first of all at where we are now in terms of policing.
There’ll be two posts this week. This first piece looks in more general terms at policing in Wales and the second (Part Vb) will look at some of the current issues facing the police.
Wales currently has four territorial police forces, which deal with the vast majority of police matters from neighbourhood policing teams, right up to criminal investigations. The territorial police forces are also responsible for traffic policing – aided by Welsh Government highways officers.
In addition to the four territorial police forces, there are several UK or Great Britain-wide special police forces and non-police law enforcement agencies. These focus on dedicated tasks or groups of tasks.
The four territorial police forces generally have exclusive responsibility for policing their respective patch, though police forces in any jurisdiction in the UK have the power to arrest anyone in any other part of the UK with a warrant. Usually, this is done in cooperation between police forces.
In terms of political accountability, policing in Wales is overseen by the UK Home Office. Since the establishment of directly-elected Police & Crime Commissioners, most of the day-to-day decision making has been delegated to them.
Police & Crime Commissioners have – broadly speaking – five core responsibilities:
- Political accountability for the police force they were elected to run.
- To set their police force’s budget and council tax precept.
- To set strategic priorities for their police force (in a five-year Police & Crime Plan).
- Appoint (and has the power to dismiss) the Chief Constable and hold them to account on behalf of the public.
- Co-operate with other PCCs and the UK (and Welsh) governments on policing matters.
Police & Crime Commissioners usually, but not always, are supported by a nominated Deputy.
Police & Crime Commissioners replaced the previous system of Police Authorities made up (mainly) of local councillors in the force area. To compensate for this, Police & Crime Panels were set up and allow members (again mainly local councillors) to scrutinise the Commissioners.
