Police, Fire and Crime Commissioners and Police Accountability

The first Police and Crime Commissioners (now Police, Fire and Crime Commissioners) were elected a decade ago in November 2012 having been established by the Conservative-Liberal Democratic coalition government. The 2010 Coalition Agreement stated: ‘We will introduce measures to make the police more accountable through oversight by a directly elected individual, who will be subject to strict checks and balances by locally elected representatives’.

In this paper, I examine the issue of police accountability. I begin by giving a brief account of how police accountability has traditionally been achieved and the introduction of Police and Crime Commissioners including their development over the last decade. In so doing, I identify any principles of accountability that apply.

Next, I examine the meaning of accountability in the UK political sphere, particularly the holding to account of the executive. In doing this, I will draw on, among other things, the Cabinet Manual, Erskine May and the Nolan Principles (which also apply directly to the police or, at least, to police leadership) to identify principles of political accountability.

I then evaluate the degree to which we may adopt or adapt these principles to critique – from both an immanent and external perspective – what police accountability requires and the degree to which this is achieved.