Ben Duncan, Green Party spokesperson on home affairs, today criticised the government's plans to elect police authority members.
Cllr Duncan, who is a member of Sussex Police Authority and of Brighton and Hove City Council, argued that the policy would allow policing to become dominated by political parties.
He said:
"This is exactly what we have seen in London, where a Commissioner resigned not because of a policing failure but a political one - that he did not enjoy the patronage and support of the new mayor. Is this what we want to see throughout the country?"
He also highlighted potential dangers of using direct elections to determine how the police service is run, saying:
"Direct elections to police authorities will allow single-issue campaigners to be elected on the back of vigilantism, racism or homophobia."
He argued that a better way to involve communities in policing was to allow them access to spending decisions. The money needed for expensive new tier of elections would be better spent on encouraging neighbourhood policing, he said.
Ben Duncan concluded:
"The reality is that talk of these elections is a smokescreen designed to obscure the fact that this Government wants to centralise and politicise decisions about crime, policing and human rights and is more committed to and managing airport and immigration security than to giving neighbourhoods any real control over policing."