West Midlands Mayor to take on PCC role

Correspondence between the Home Secretary and Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands has revealed that the Government will legislate to move responsibility for policing in the region from the PCC to the Combined Authority Mayor.

After a trying period for West Midlands Police where His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary moved the force into special measures, the Home Secretary said in his letter that this position underlines the ‘need for strong governance to hold the force to account for performance improvement.’

Andy Street published the letter on LinkedIn for what he called, ‘full transparency.’

In a strongly worded response to the Home Secretary’s decision, current Police and Crime Commissioner for the West Midlands, Simon Foster said,

“I deeply disagree with the Mayor’s hostile takeover, because firstly, he is abolishing people’s right to vote, so that he can appoint one of his friends to the role instead; secondly, preventing, tackling and reducing crime will not be his top priority, and thirdly, this is a cynical and divisive power grab, that is in no-one’s interests save that of the Mayor.”

The Labour PCC went on to say that it was a political decision because previous Conservative candidates for the role of PCC, “were not trusted by the people of the West Midlands to prevent, tackle and reduce crime.”

Legislation to allow the transfer of responsibility to the Mayor’s office will need to be in place ahead of the May 2024 PCC elections. Mr Foster said the people of the West Midlands should have the right to choose whether a PCC or the Mayor should represent them to provide oversight for policing in the region.

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