The final part of this mini-series looks at running the police as well as how to hold the police to account for their actions and/or misconduct.
The next set of themed posts – due in December – will look at the court system, legal profession and judiciary.
Police forces are largely autonomous and have a measure of operational independence from the central government even if they’re ultimately answerable to the likes of the UK Home Office. This allows police forces to come up with policies and strategies to suit local needs.
I outlined some of the options in terms of government and Senedd oversight (a Welsh equivalent of the Home Office) in Part IVb. So next, what are the possible options an independent Wales (or a devolved Wales with policing powers) has in terms of police administration at force level?
The status quo is maintaining elected Police & Crime Commissioners. I assume one of the first acts the Senedd will take if policing is devolved in the future is to abolish them. In principle, the idea of having a named person directly accountable to the electorate to run the police is fine, but it hasn’t quite worked out like that.
By and large, PCCs have very low profiles and their remit is so narrowly focused it’s likely difficult for the public, politicians and media to properly scrutinise them. While individually they’ve introduced policies that have made things better in one or two areas, I doubt they’ve had much impact on crime or policing on the ground.
I’d say the option is off the table (particularly if Wales doesn’t maintain territorial police forces – Part VI), but the role could be – as suggested above – folded into the remit and jurisdiction of elected mayors and/or a regional tier of government in the future.
Police authorities still exist to an extent in the form of Police & Crime Panels but they lack teeth. Giving them teeth would mean returning to how forces were run before 2012 and how the three fire services are currently run in Wales. If we’re going to have police authorities, my preference would be for them to be elected rather than appointed for democracy’s sake – but that comes with all the issues of PCCs (low profile, no idea what they do etc.).
If Wales opts to have a single national police force, then you assume there would be a single Police Authority/Police Board as in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
My overall preferred outcome would be for a regional/federal tier of government to take on the powers of PCCs and delegating the administrative role to a committee of a regional assembly – but that’s a local government issue and an entire topic in its own right.
The last option – direct government control – may only work if there’s a single national police force. Direct control may simplify governance and administrative arrangements somewhat, but it risks the police being seen even more so as an arm of the state and government rather than a civilian-led uniform service.
