FREE POLICE IN SCARBOROUGH AND WHITBY FROM GOVERNMENT BUREAUCRACY

6.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 12th Sep 2008

PLANS to free local police forces from the grip of central government bureaucracy and targets have been welcomed by Liberal Democrats in Scarborough and Whitby

The proposals have been launched by Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary Chris Huhne and will be debated at the party's conference in Bournemouth in September.

Liberal Democrat PPC Tania Exley-Moore said that police officers would be freed to spend more time policing communities rather than chasing government targets.

"The police have to be free to police our local communities," said Tania. "Constant interference and targets from Whitehall do little to catch criminals and deter crime. Scarborough and Whitby police are far better placed than a government minister in Whitehall to decide what the local priorities are.

"The proposals also call for police authorities to be elected by local people, rather than appointed by ministers. That will mean policing priorities are under the control of local people."

Other key points include:

• Reviewing the police contract including lifetime employment for 30 years, the single point of entry and pay levels

• Annual fitness tests for frontline officers

• Decentralising the force by scrapping counterproductive central targets, introducing the local setting of priorities and budgets and the direct election of the majority of police authority members

• Creating a National Crime Reduction Agency to assess police and criminal justice policies on evidence and to spread best practice

• Respecting police pay awards from the Police Arbitration Tribunal

• 10,000 extra police on the streets, paid for by scrapping ID cards