The long road to more democratic policing
Thursday, October 1, 2015 - 07:20
in Psychology & Sociology
In England and Wales the introduction of directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) in November 2012 was heralded by the government as a great democratising transformation, ensuring that police would be governed through the 'democratic' electoral process rather than the 'bureaucratic' performance management process. Many interested parties, from the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) to civil rights campaign group Liberty, were highly sceptical of PCCs from the start. Many critics of the move took a different view to the government on what makes policing 'democratic', emphasising liberal safeguards such as the 'operational independence' of the police and their subjection to the rule of law.