RESIDENTS have until the end of January to submit their views on plans to transfer the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner’s (PCC) powers to the Mayor.
The Home Office is consulting on plans to give more locally elected Mayors responsibility for setting the police budget, drawing up police and crime plans and appointing a Chief Constable.
The government will consider the responses received before deciding whether to introduce legislation to enact the change in the West Midlands.
This comes after the West Midlands Mayor, Andy Street, wrote to the Home Secretary in November calling for a transfer of powers from the PCC’s, Simon Foster, office to his because ‘crime in this region has more than doubled’ in the past eight years and he ‘simply cannot allow it any longer’.
This sparked outrage in the PCC who has called the move a ‘hostile takeover’ and threatened a judicial review against the Mayor claiming he may have acted unlawfully.
If the change does get the green light the delivery of operational policing will continue to be the responsibility of the Chief Constable.
Any changes will be effective following the mayoral elections in May this year, when the current PCC will complete their term in office.
Consultation forms are available at all libraries and bus station across the West Midlands and responses can also be submitted online at www.gov.uk/government/consultations/west-midlands-police-and-crime-commissioner-functions-transfer by January 31.
