Tories plan to devolve policing to locally elected sheriffs

Communities could be given the chance to elect a sheriff with overall responsibility for the policing strategy of their community, under plans being unveiled by Conservatives.

In his keynote speech to the Party's annual conference in Blackpool, Shadow Home Secretary Oliver Letwin said that by giving "ultimate responsibility for policing" to a directly elected sheriff, mayor or police authority would bring policing closer to local community's priorities.

Mr Letwin said that slimming down the policing responsibilities of the Home Secretary would leave him with "no responsibility for local policing" - such as drawing up local crime plans - except in extreme circumstances. Instead, the non-national functions of the Home Secretary would be transferred to directly elected police authorities, mayors or sheriffs.

Chief constables would report to those politicians, but at the same time the operational independence of chief constables would be enshrined in statute for the first time, said Mr Letwin.

Mr Letwin also highlighted the Party's plans to recruit 40,000 additional officers over an eight-year period in an effort to police Britain's cities "as intensively as are those of the United States of America". The recruitment drive would be paid for by a "radical overhaul of the asylum system", which costs £1.8 billion a year. This could be replaced with a system quota for "genuine refugees" coupled with offshore processing of asylum applicants, said Mr Letwin.

Part of the Tory plan would be for new National Police Bureau to be set up – reporting directly to the Home Secretary, co-ordinating the anti-terrorist and organised crime-fighting efforts of the National Crime Squad, the National Criminal Intelligence Service, the Security Service, the Metropolitan Police and Customs and Excise.

(gmcg)