Orde opposes elected police chiefs
Sir Hugh Orde
Friday March 19 2010
Introducing elected police commissioners with direct control over forces in the UK would turn 100 years of British policing culture on its head, one of the country's most senior officers warned.
President of Association of Chief Police Officers Sir Hugh Orde hit out at the notion of a politician being able to tell a force what to do.
The Conservative Party has proposed the change as part of its plans to introduce more accountability into policing in England and Wales.
If they win the election, the Tories have indicated that current London Mayor Boris Johnson could become the first elected police commissioner in the city.
But the idea has been criticised by Labour and the Lib Dems, who claim the new office would amount to something akin to a "sheriff".
Sir Hugh, who has already warned that he and some colleagues would rather quit than come under the direct control of politicians, restated his opposition to the prospect while giving a lecture to criminology students in Belfast.
The former Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable told the final year University of Ulster class that the idea of a politician being able to order the police what to do and what not to do "turns on its head 100 years of policing culture".
"A Chief Constable is interested in the law and the law alone and I don't think you can codify what operational independence is," he said.
The Conservatives have stressed that current police chiefs' day-to-day operational authority would not be compromised by the move, with the commissioner responsible for wider strategic and policy issues.
Sir Hugh was delivering the lecture in his role as a Visiting Professor at Ulster's School of Criminology, Politics and Social Policy.
