London, 19 July 2008: England's elected mayors will be given control of policing towns and cities under sweeping reforms announced by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. The proposals will see elected mayors given direct control of policing while other areas will see directly elected police boards introduced as a means to both give communities more say over fighting crime and encourage more local councils to opt for having an elected mayor. The proposals follow an earlier white paper to make it easier for councils to adopt elected mayors, but local government leaders dismissed the government's plans as incoherent and dangerous.

The From the Neighbourhood to the National green paper responds to public and police concerns over bureaucracy and the imposing of a targets culture in policing over the last decade. As well as the proposals for giving more power to elected mayors and creating new elected police boards, the proposals include allowing for greater public accountability by the police in the form of crime maps and regular local discussions. However, local government leaders, including three Labour elected mayors, dismissed the plans to roll out elected police boards as detrimental to local government and as having the potential to see extremists elected. The Association of Police Authorities warned of the dangers of introducing party politics into policing, while the Conservative Party claimed the government had stolen its ideas as it had long advocated the introduction of elected commissioners for each police force.