Call for Police and Crime Commissioners to be Sworn Into Office (12 Jan 2012)

Policing practitioners have urged the Policing Minister, Nick Herbert, to consider making it compulsory for incoming police and crime commissioners to swear an oath of office before taking up their role.

In a letter dated 11 January 2012, signed by the Chairs of both the Association of Police Authorities (APA) and the Association of Police Authority Chief Executives (APACE), it has been suggested to the Minister that the public expression of an attestation ceremony would set the right tone for the first directly-elected police and crime commissioners (PCCs) who will take up office on 22 November 2012.

In the letter, Councillor Mark Burns-Williamson (Chair of the APA) and Fraser Sampson (Chair of APACE) make a number of point about why such a ceremony would be of benefit for PCCs, including ‘it would send a powerful message to their local communities, their partners and their colleagues in the police service’, ‘remind successful candidates of the public expectations attending their succession to a responsible position’, ‘commit them personally to meeting an appropriate standard of conduct’ and be ‘for the PCCs to pledge themselves to a higher purpose and a set of principles that sit above any specific interests or policies’.