West Midlands police boss Bob Jones gives himself a three out of 10 rating
The elected police chief for the West Midlands has given himself and his peers in other forces a score of three out of 10 for reducing crime.
Almost a year on from the elections of the first ever police and crime commissioners (PCCs), the region's figurehead maintains the role should never have been created. But Labour's Bob
Jones said he ran for the post to 'mitigate the worst effects of the model' and said he believed he had made progress.
Revealing what he called a 'school report' on the national model of giving every force an elected police chief, he said PCCs had scored three out of 10 for cutting crime, two out of 10 for public confidence and four out of 10 for reducing bureaucracy.
His Tory opposite number for Staffordshire, Matthew Ellis, disagrees and says that PCCs have the potential to score 10 out of 10. He said that Staffordshire was the only place in the country where the number of uninsured drivers had come down.
He also claimed plans to use new technology to cut bureaucracy and put officers on the streets for more of the time were progressing well.
Last November the elections produced one of the lowest turnouts ever seen in a British vote. Nationally just 15 per cent of voters bothered to register a preference for the new roles, created by David Cameron to make the police more accountable to the public.
Mr Jones said: "I stood on a platform of believing that while police accountability to the community was crucial, the Police and Crime Commissioner model was extremely risky. My strategy has been to mitigate the worst effects of the model and I believe I have made some progress.
"I would point, for example, to sending community safety funding direct to existing local partnerships rather than wasting time and money on new commissioning structures and processes."
Explaining his three out 10 rating for PCCs achievements in cutting crime, he said: "Since April, when PCC's plans and budgets came into effect, years of steady reduction in crime have ground to a halt.
"Most likely this is due to government policy rather than the impact of PCCs, but the Home Secretary's only target is to reduce crime – and this is not happening."
He said the PCC model scored four out of 10 because it had cost £100 million but made police accountability 'less effective'.
