Will you be voting?

I've seen clips of the adverts. Basically they make the country look as if it's a hotbed of violence and drug dealing. Let's make the population believe that the police don't do a good job and scare them into thinking they need a police commisioner.

I just hope the class traitor doesn't win here. I'm sure he's finanically secure on his MP pension, his MEP pension and his House of Lords expenses (currently £300 a day just for walking into the building). I doubt he needs the £70K a year that comes with this job.

The area in which I live has seen a consistent decrease in crime and increase in solving crimes. I am not at all confident that some toe-the-party-line hack or well-meaning independent amateur is going to improve things. But then again, I still don't know who is standing and what they stand for.

Still, it will all be all right because the Government is spending (our) money on advertisements to tell us to go out and vote. It is very worried that the whole thing will become farcical and that none of the new commissioners will have a proper mandate, thus putting egg on Government faces.

We've got the class traitor, a lib dem ex councillor (she lost her seat when the electorate woke up and realised what the lib dems did to our city) and an ex police officer. I'm going to vote for the ex police officer on the grounds that he'll know something about policing, the problems of this area, how budget cuts affect different sectors and that although the public demand it feet on the street may not be the best way to police an area.

You mean the bloke who hated the Lords and said he would refuse one, until it was offered. The bloke who's party voted against police commissioners and now he wants to be one, along with the rest.

Lord Prescott and no doubt Police Commissioner Prescott. Nothing of a hypocrite in him is there.

I think it is silly and it will lead to politics taking over more than ever in the police force and I don't see how that can be good for the country.

Anyone from Humberside? Their Labour candidate is John Prescott....

We have three candidates in Greater Manchester, none of whom impress me. The one who knows most about policing is a retired inspector, a LibDem candidate. He has worked with serious crime, but is not an all-rounder, and doesn't say he has the business and political acumen that will also be needed. We need someone with vision. I will vote, but I want to know much more first.

Whoops! Should've checked that last post.

I may be naive, but I can't see how having an elected Police Commissioner will magically strengthen the 'fight against crime'. And I may be cynical or even paranoid but has the spate of stories in the media about corrupt and/or incompetent police officers is very timely, isn't it?

I read about it a while ago in our local newspaper, but since then...nothing.
I would vote maybe if I knew who,where,when?

I heard about it on the radio this morning. I know nothing about our candidates and that's saying something as I knew very little about our prospective parliamentary and local council candidates either. Only one representative called round at that time. On this occasion I've had absolutely no information whatsoever. How are we expected to vote? Is it just lip service? It's like 'consultations'. Councils send out a survey and think they've fulfilled the criteria for consultations - what c**p!
I'm currently fed up with the lot of them