Power struggles: Police and crime commissioners, chief constables, and the battle over operational policing

This paper reviews the challenges that directly-elected Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) face in reforming controversial police tactics that are favoured by chief constables, but generate significant concerns among the electorate. Focusing on reforms to police-initiated stops, namely ‘stop and account’ and ‘stop and search’, the results suggest PCCs tend to achieve incremental changes, at best, as they struggle to overcome resistance from their chief constables and the legal constraints of ‘operational independence’. The results have significant implications because it suggests PCCs are not as powerful as has been assumed. However, PCCs can enhance the prospects of reform and better navigate resistance by exercising their rarely used soft powers, such as commissioning national regulatory bodies to review areas of concern or appealing to their local Police and Crime Panel for support in scrutiny. The results of this study are based on interviews with PCCs and chief constables, their deputies and assistants, local campaign groups and staff from national regulatory bodies, as well as participant observations across several police forces.