On November 15, thousands of people in West Yorkshire will be entitled to vote for a new Police and Crime Commissioner.

In the past, the chairman of the West Yorkshire Police Authority was appointed by the other 16 elected and independent committee members. The new commissioner will derive their mandate to serve for the next three-and-a-half years from the voters.

Anyone over 18 who is a British, Commonwealth or European citizen is entitled to vote providing they have registered with the local authority’s elections office. Ballot papers should arrive by post in the first week of November. Registration has to be completed by October 31.

Voting takes place in the usual polling stations between 7am and 10pm on November 15. Postal ballots, obtainable from the Council’s elections unit, must be completed and returned by October 31.

The commissioner is due to start work on November 22 and by February next year must have a clear set of budgeted objectives which can be wholly or in part rejected by the members of the Crime Panel.

The job entails securing the maintenance of an efficient and effective police force and to hold the chief constable to account for the delivery of the commissioner’s own Police and Crime Plan.

They will also have to produce an annual report to the public. But before any of that, they will have to swear an Oath of Impartiality (see panel).

Minister for Policing and Criminal Justice Nick Herbert said: “Although police and crime commissioners may stand for a political party, the public will expect them to represent all the people in their area impartially, without fear or favour. Commissioners are there to serve the people, not a political party or any one section of their electorate.”

The old West Yorkshire Police Authority, set up in 1974, no longer exists. The 17-strong committee and its chairman has been replaced with a shadow Crime Panel which has already met three times.

The panel will be responsible for scrutinising decisions and ensuring this information is available to the public. They must review the commissioner’s draft Police and Crime Plan and draft annual report before publication, and the Commissioner must give their comments due consideration.

A panel may require the attendance of the commissioner or a member of his or her staff at any time, and may suspend a Commissioner from office where he or she is charged with a serious criminal offence.

Police and Crime Panels will be able to veto a commissioner’s proposed precept or proposed candidate for Chief Constable by a two-thirds majority.

A Bradford member of that Wakefield-based panel is Queensbury Conservative councillor Michael Walls. He said the Police and Crime Commissioner will be far more powerful than the former chairman.

“The main difference is that they will be elected and will have much more autonomy than the chairman. They won’t have to justify themselves to anybody really. They will be all-powerful.”

Bradford East Liberal-Democrat MP David Ward, who was opposed to elected mayors, thinks the new American-style commissioner – the title sounds like something out of Batman and Robin’s Gotham City – is “absolutely barmy” and will prove extremely expensive.

He said: “It’s all back to the cult of the big personality. The police authority worked and was democratically accountable. The need to have this sort of ‘Robocop’ is so far from the reality of what is required.”

  • To check on your voter registration to go aboutmyvote.co.uk, or call the elections unit on (01274) 432286.

OATH OF IMPARTIALITY

In August, the Home Office announced that every newly-elected Police and Crime Commissioner would be required to swear an Oath of Impartiality before taking office. The oath obliges the commissioner to:

  • Solemnly and sincerely promise to serve all the people of Police Force Area without fear or favour
  • To act with integrity and diligence in the role and execute the duties of office to ensure that the police are able to cut crime and protect the public
  • To give a voice to the public, especially victims of crime and work with other services to ensure the safety of the community and effective criminal justice.
  • Take all legitimate steps to ensure transparency of decision-making, so that the commissioner may be properly held to account by the public.
  • Not seek to influence or prevent any lawful and reasonable investigation or arrest, nor encourage any police action save that which is lawful and justified within the bounds of office.