© Tom Blewitt & Zack Griffiths – Predator Awareness

The experiment is over. Police and Crime Commissioners in England & Wales have proven to be one of the most wasteful, ill-conceived reforms in modern policing. Introduced by the Conservatives in 2012, PCCs were sold as a way to bring accountability and local oversight to our police forces. In reality, they politicised policing, drained taxpayer funds, and delivered little more than vanity projects and courtroom battles to protect their own jobs.

Since 2019, reports have shown that PCCs have cost the UK taxpayer around £210 million. That is money that could have gone directly into frontline policing—more officers on the streets, better equipment, stronger community engagement. Instead, it has been swallowed by bloated salaries, political campaigns, and administrative overheads. The public were promised efficiency; what they got was bureaucracy.

Policing should be impartial, professional, and free from political interference. PCCs shattered that principle. They turned police forces into political footballs, with commissioners more concerned about party allegiances and personal careers than about crime prevention. The very idea of elected police bosses undermined the neutrality of law enforcement, dragging officers into the murky world of party politics.

The most dangerous consequence of politicised policing is how party politics has begun to creep into arrests themselves. Ordinary people have found themselves questioned, fined, or even jailed for holding political opinions, posting on Facebook, or daring to blow the whistle on uncomfortable truths. Instead of protecting free speech, PCCs have presided over a climate where dissent is treated as a crime. 

This is not policing in the public interest—it is policing in the interest of political parties. When commissioners are elected on party tickets, their loyalty is not to the people but to the machine that put them there. That is why whistleblowers are silenced, critics are punished, and communities lose trust in the very institutions meant to protect them.

Take Simon Foster, Labour’s PCC in the West Midlands. Under his watch, the region has endured some of the worst knife crime rates in the country. In 2023, Mayor Andy Street secured government approval to merge the PCC role with the West Midlands Mayor—a move designed to save money, streamline leadership, and deliver better value for taxpayers. It was common sense restructuring.

But what happened? Foster went to court to save his own job. In 2024, he won an appeal on a technicality. And who footed the bill for this legal battle? We did—the taxpayer. Instead of focusing on crime, Foster fought to protect his salary and title. This is not accountability; it is self-preservation at public expense.

The numbers speak for themselves. Over £210 million spent since 2019, with little to show for it. Knife crime remains rampant, sexual crimes at record high, trust in policing is at an all-time low, and communities feel abandoned. PCCs have failed to deliver safer streets, failed to deliver value for money, and failed to justify their existence.

The government is right to scrap PCCs. Their removal is not just a matter of saving money—it is about restoring integrity to policing. It strips away the political theatre and puts focus back where it belongs: on tackling crime and protecting communities.

And let’s be clear: this is the only thing the Labour Government have got right since being elected into power. For once, they’ve chosen common sense. I’m actually shocked!

Police and Crime Commissioners were a failed experiment that cost taxpayers dearly, politicised our police forces, and delivered nothing of substance. Their legacy is one of waste, inefficiency, and misplaced priorities. The government’s decision to remove them is not only justified—it is long overdue. 

The public deserves policing that is professional, impartial, and effective. PCCs gave us the opposite. Good riddance.