Crime chief: Ditching key role is risky
David Jamieson has warned that scrapping the role of police and crime commissioner could lead to a failure in oversight of the force.
The West Midlands Labour PCC says he stands by his record since coming into office in 2014, insisting he has created a model that is 'one of the strongest in the country' when it comes to holding the police to account on behalf of the public.
The elected position is due to be axed in 2020 as part of plans to include its duties under the remit of the region's Mayor.
And Mr Jamieson – who has said the chances of him standing for either PCC or Mayor again were 'as near to zero' as it was possible to get – says he has concerns over the level of scrutiny placed on West Midlands Police in future.
"My big concern is that moving the PCC into the Mayoral model, will give the Mayor a wider role but with less depth," he said.
"I think as a result that depth of inquiry and probing that comes with the PCC role will be lost.
"We are one of the few forces that has a detailed process of holding the police to account.
" And of course the other part of the role is advocacy of the police... meeting with the Home Secretary and other politicians to speak on behalf of the police and making sure that MPs and council leaders are fully informed about what we are doing.
"I'm not sure that a Mayor has the capacity to do all that. I'm equally unsure as to whether an unelected deputy Mayor carries enough clout to be able to do it."
Current West Midlands Mayor Andy Street is under instructions from Whitehall to ditch the PCC role as part of the second devolution deal.
But Mr Jamieson says the mayoral model, which was chosen by council leaders on the West Midlands Combined Authority, was 'very weak'.
"The Mayor in the West Midlands has very few powers, and there is no doubt that taking over the governance of the police needs a much stronger model," he said.
"The current mayor has got important work to do. Youth unemployment is still very high indeed. That is fuelling crime. We are seeing bus use going down, the trains are not running properly, homelessness... there are a lot of issues there.
"The proposed new model of governance needs much longer and clearer deliberation. There are important questions that have not yet been answered."
