Feedback

Hello from the LOOP team and thanks to everyone who took part in our ‘Who Police’s the Police’ survey.

Each month we will be updating you with what the key outcomes were from the survey questions we asked, as well as giving you information about what we’re doing with the results.

In our first survey we asked you about your views on the proposed changes to police accountability which included replacing police authorities with a directly elected individual – A police and crime commissioner- and we sought your views on the LOOP website.

Proposals for a directly elected individual to replace existing police authorities:

• In general you were not in favour of the proposals for directly elected individuals to be responsible for holding the police to account with half (50%) of you not in favour of the proposals to any extent, just over a third (37%) in favour to a some or a slight extent and only around a tenth (11%)in favour to a great extent
• Given the choice, over three quarters (78%) of you would choose a Police Authority over a directly elected individual
• Around two thirds of you overall agreed with statements about the potential negative impact of appointing a directly elected individual. The highest proportion of you disagreed with the statement relating to executive control being placed in the hands of one individual, suggesting that there is an expectation or assumption that the directly elected individual will not be solely responsible but will be influenced or scrutinised by others
• The current Police Authority performance is rated highly (80% rate our performance between 7 and 10 on a scale where 1 was poor and 10 was excellent), a very positive finding that demonstrates our current value of to members of the public

What we are doing with the results:

Lancashire Police Authority has written to the Home Secretary formally about the proposals and included the results from this survey in our response.

Our position is that after carefully considering the Government’s proposals for a Police and Crime Commissioner, we unanimously agree that we have reservations with regard to the current proposals which are echoed by the surveys findings.  We are concerned about the costs associated with the model, particularly in respect of the council tax referenda, and believe that the full costs should be properly quantified and should not be met at the expense of local policing services.  

Over the coming months the Authority will be working alongside Government ministers and officers to help shape the future model to support a safe move to the new structure as well as continuing to monitor and scrutinise current police services.