COMMENT: Does anyone actually care about the Police and Crime Commissioner elections?
The nominations are in for next month's police and crime commissioner elections - but does anyone actually care?
In the inaugural elections in 2012 the majority of people clearly did not, with low turnouts common in polls up and down the country.
Staffordshire saw the lowest turnout of all police force areas at just 11.63 per cent, while the West Midlands did not fare much better at 11.96 per cent.
The position was controversial from the outset and it is clear that many people are still not convinced that it is worthy of such vast expense.
The role commands a huge salary and when PCCs office buildings and staffing costs are taken into account the cost runs into millions of pounds each year.
For taxpayers to accept such an expense many of them need to be reassured that commissioners are committed to holding the police to account and making forces accountable to the communities that they serve.
The late Bob Jones, former West Midlands PCC, said that although commissioners had higher profile than the old police authorities they had fewer tools to hold their force to account.
Candidates have a lot of work ahead to convince the electorate to come out and vote before the polls open on May 5.
