On 15 October I published a short essay about participation. Gavin Stephen’s has called for a shake up in the way the police are organised and call for biggest shake-up since the 1960s, it was reported in the Guardian here https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/nov/18/police-chief-calls-for-biggest-shake-up-of-england-and-wales-policing-since-1960s
I am sure there is a lot in what he says but I also think there is a much more fundamental issue; policing is too important to be left to police officers, it matters to us all.
When Police Authorities were replaced by Police & Crime Commissioners in 2012 we lost a form of collegiate control and replaced it with a centralised and directly party-political system. Policing should be subject to democratic control but it is not a partisan issue; without citizens in the loop our current system lacks proper scrutiny, police and crime commissioners are dangerously more than figureheads.
The Police Authorities had supposedly independent as well as political members. The political members reflected the make up of the local authorities they served. The so called independents were from Home Office approved lists. The Police Authority system easily has been reformed by replacing the independent members with randomly selected citizens from the areas being served. This would have put ordinary citizens in the role and balanced out the political appointees.
The police are a public service, the way policing operates is fundamental to our societies well being, citizens have a right and it should be their duty to oversee it.