TIME TO DEVOLVE POLICING

At the moment we have four police forces in Wales: Dyfed-Powys, South Wales, North Wales and Gwent, as of this November there will be four elected Police Commissioners. Yet despite this the reality is that the people of Wales have less say over policing in their own communities than people in Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man do. In Scotland, policing has always been a devolved function, it is time for it to be devolved here in Wales. Welsh government ministers in Cardiff will have a far greater understanding of local policing needs and the  expectations of our communities than some distant political appointee in the Ministry of Justice. At the end of the day, regardless of the reluctance of the current Welsh Government in Cardiff to do anything, the Welsh people have a fundamental democratic right to have a greater say in something so fundamental to civilised community life as policing. Policing is only one side of the coin, to make devolved policing work, there is also a need to devolve control of criminal justice.