Overview

• The first ever elections for Police and Crime Commissioners will be held on 15 November 2012.
• Each of the 41 police force areas in England and Wales, outside of London, will directly-elect a Commissioner.
• Commissioners are at the heart of the Government's programme of decentralisation, where power is returned to people and communities.
• Instead of bureaucratic, Whitehall-led control of the police we will see democratic accountability with the public having a real say over how their area is policed.

What will Police and Crime Commissioners do?

• Commissioners will be local figures with powerful mandates from the public to drive the fight against crime and anti-social behaviour.
• Commissioners will decide policing strategy and the force budget. They will set the local council tax precept and appoint - and if necessary dismiss - the chief constable. And all of this will be done on behalf of the public who elect them.
• Police and Crime Commissioners will replace the existing police authorities and have a much larger role.
• As their title - Police and Crime Commissioners - suggests they will have a broad remit to ensure community safety, with their own budgets to prevent crime and tackle drugs.
• Working with local authorities, community safety partnerships and local criminal justice boards, Commissioners will help bring a strategic coherence to the actions of these organisations across each police force.
• The Commissioners will also have responsibility for strategic policing - they will have to address national issues as well as local concerns.

A single and accountable individual

• Commissioners will be a single elected individual who will take executive decisions, supported by a highly qualified team.
• The principle of one accountable individual, directly responsible for the totality of police force activity is central to the Government's vision of the new policing landscape.
• The buck will stop with commissioners, and the public will cast judgement at the ballot box, voting out commissioners who don't cut crime or address local concerns.
• But Police and Crime Commissioners won't have day-to-day control over operational policing - they won't be able to tell a sworn officer of the crown who to arrest.

The candidate

• We're looking for very high calibre candidates for what will be high profile and public roles.
• Police and Crime Commissioners will have to be leaders.
• Commissioners will need to work with the police as well as with other local agencies while engaging with the public and the media.
• We will be casting the net widely and certainly will look beyond those who have previously worked on police authorities.
• Commissioners could come with experience as business leaders, from military or policing backgrounds, from national as well as local politics, or from other fields.

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