In the new coalition government's first Queen's Speech today, it seems that the move towards 'putting power back in the hands of the people' and reinstating civil liberties has been extended to policing, with a bill being promised which will allow directly elected individuals to have a crucial role in overseeing the work of police forces. The 'Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill' will implement this key Conservative law and order policy and Home Secretary Theresa May has said that "the directly-elected individuals will ensure police chiefs are held to account and serve their local people effectively". However, this seems most obviously to be a move towards a politicization of the policing system and it will be interesting to see how various members of policing organisations will react to this.
Here's a link to more information on this in today's Independent:
The Tories have been talking about democratically accountable police for a while - I feared this would find its way into policy. Police chiefs must not be elected - I mean, has anyone seen the wire?! Take heed!
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