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Originally Posted by Xaccers
So a detective would be pulled of a hostage case or bank robbery to do beat work????
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No, but they may be pulled off any investigations they are involved in to help solve more politically conveniant crimes.
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Originally Posted by Xaccers
Currently Derbyshire has 17 people on the PA, you think 1 person replacing that will cost more???
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The problem is, it won't just be one person will it? At the very least he'll need a Personal Assistant (OK, these don't cost an awful lot relatively) and other office staff.
It's also worth bearing in mind that those 17 people are all councillors (who are already elected) or magistrates, and reading that article it sounds like they are on the Police Authority part time (so shouldn't be drawing a full-time salary).
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Claiming the commisioner would be influenced by political parties, well, out of Derbyshire's 17 members of the PA, only 3 are appointed in a non-politically connected manner!
So currently there's more chance of political meddling!
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The problem with a commissioner (as I see it) is, as is stated in the article, he or she may have one particular belief that he or she thinks is more important than other crimes. For instance, a commissioner of a certain Ethnic group (for example) may place more importance on racially motivated crime, and therefore influence the Chief Constable* to devote more resources to race crimes.
The current system is designed (as I understand it) to counteract the possibility of the Authority becoming fixated with one issue.
*Yes, I do realise that Chief Constables could do this anyway. I just think it's important for the Police to be as impartial as possible.