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Duties

These will include setting the priorities for Leicestershire Police, responding to the needs of communities, setting the budget for local policing, ensuring that local and national priorities are suitably resourced and monitoring the local performance of the force.  Examples can be found below:

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• Hold the Chief Constable to account for the performance of Leicestershire Police

• Set out a five year Police and Crime Plan, which can be refreshed every year.

• Set the amount of Council Tax local people will pay towards policing

• Set the Annual Budget for policing in Leicestershire

• Present a budget to the Police and Crime Panel for scrutiny.  The Police and Crime Panel have the authority to veto the proposed amount local peple will pay towards policing (known as the Precept).

• Attend the Police and Crime Panel meetings to answer questions and explain decisions

• Regularly consult and involve the public and have regard to local authority priorities

• Provide Community Safety Grants to individuals and organisations

• Ensure victims and the most vulnerable are consulted

• Publish an Annual Report

• Cooperate with Partners to ensure an efficient and effective Criminal Justice system

• Ensure Leicestershire Police are Value for Money

• Appoint, and if necessary dismiss, the Chief Constable

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It is not for the PCC to tell the Force how to do their job.  Legislation continues to protect the operational independence of the police by making it clear that the chief constable retains direction and control of their officers and staff.  The operations of the police will not be politicised; who is arrested and how investigations work will not become political decisions.

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Impartiality

When a Police and Crime Commissioner takes up office they swear an oath of impartiality. The swearing of an oath is an important symbol of impartiality, emphasising both the significance of this new role in local communities and that PCCs are there to serve the people, not a political party or any one section of their electorate.

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National responsibilities and local priorities

A Police and Crime Commissioner is responsible for the full range of policing work, including national responsibilities and local priorities.

 

In July 2012, the Home Secretary issued the Strategic Policing Requirement (SPR) which both the Police and Crime Commissioner and the Chief Constables must take into account when carrying out their roles.

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The SPR focuses on those areas where the Government has a responsibility for ensuring that enough resources are in place to respond to serious crime that crosses boundaries and to support the work of national agencies such as the National Crime Agency.  It does not cover areas where chief constables and police and crime commissioners are able to make effective local risk assessments.

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The SPR determines national threats that the police must address, and the appropriate national policing capabilities that are required to counter those threats.  These threats – terrorism, organised crime, public disorder, civil emergencies and cyber threats – evolve from local to national issues, often very quickly.  They require a response firstly from local policing, with local forces playing their part on the local, regional and national stages.

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