Opinion

OPINION: What are the major challenges for a PCC entering their second term? Katy Bourne, PCC for Sussex, gives us her reflections on the job, her achievements, and the opportunities ahead.

OPINION: Lord Bew is the Chair of the Committee on Standards on Public Life to the Prime Minister. The Committee’s remit is to suggest changes to help promote and maintain the seven ‘Nolan’ principles of public life – integrity, accountability, selflessness, objectivity, openness, honesty and leadership. All public office holders, including PCCs, are expected to live up to them.

OPINION: Dorset PCC Martyn Underhill provides his reaction to the vote to leave the European Union

OPINION: Jason Ablewhite was elected in May as Cambridgeshire's new Police and Crime Commissioner. He describes his first month on the job - the lessons he's learned and the challenges he sees in the years ahead.

OPINION: Is the UK safer and more secure within the EU? In the introduction to the report Britain is Stronger in Europe, the Rt Hon Charles Clarke, former Home Secretary, makes the case for voting 'Remain', along with co-authors Peter Neyroud, former Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police and CEO of National Policing Improvement Agency, and Lord Carlile of Berriew QC.

OPINION: What is the real impact of reduced police numbers? Dr Joan Donnelly of the Police Federation of England and Wales discusses the complexity of 'demand', ahead of a conference next week at Canterbury Christ Church University on Evidence Based Policing: Beyond the Randomised Control Trial.

OPINION: Chief Superintendent John Sutherland gives his personal reflections on leadership in the police service - what it means, and why it matters.

ANALYSIS: PCCs are overwhelmingly white and male, but what about the people they employ? Sandra Andrews of CoPaCC analyses the diversity of the staff that make up the Offices of the PCCs - and finds that transparency as well as diversity remain challenging issues.

OPINION: With less than ten days to go before the referendum on the UK's continued membership of the European Union, Dorset PCC Martyn Underhill argues that the UK needs to vote 'leave' in order to strengthen our national security.

ANALYSIS: The police service is the latest sector to launch an innovative initiative to tempt the best and brightest graduates into its ranks. But what can graduate fast-trackers bring to public services? Caoimhe Udom analyses the outcome of a recent panel discussion held by the Institute for Government.

OPINION: In the last of our blog posts celebrating Volunteers' Week, Tina Shelton outlines how Employer-Supported Policing can bring massive benefits to businesses and other employers as well as to the police.

OPINION: Colin Pipe was the first (and so far the only) Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner to hold office as a volunteer. In the fifth of our blogs celebrating Volunteers' Week, he argues that service - and therefore volunteering - should be at the heart of everything that PCCs do.

ANALYSIS: Who are the people that volunteer to support their police service? What is their contribution to policing? And what about their relationships with the police officers and staff who work alongside them? In the fourth of our blogs celebrating Volunteers' Week, Melissa Pepper explores the evidence.

OPINION: In the wake of a recent @wecops discussion on the role of sergeants, Emma Williams of Canterbury Christ Church University examines the nature of leadership at sergeant level in the changing social landscape of policing.

OPINION: In the third in our series celebrating police volunteering, Terry Wilkins calls on police forces to take advantage of the huge range of skills that volunteers can bring, helping to connect police to communities.

OPINION: In the second of our series celebrating volunteering in policing, Dr Amie Birkhamshaw says PCCs have confounded their critics by embracing the volunteering agenda and embedding volunteers in the fabric of their planning

OPINION: Chief Constable Dave Thompson of West Midlands Police pays tribute to efforts made to increase diversity, but warns that police still need to correct assumptions, think harder, and talk about their challenges.

OPINION: Andrew Haldenby, Director of the Reform thinktank, welcomes the government's sweeping proposals for fire service reform - and warns if change doesn't happen voluntarily, the government may force it through anyway.

OPINION: Are Triage schemes doing their job in mental health emergencies? Serving police officer 'Nathan Constable' warns police forces could be heading down a dead end track with no way to turn around.

OPINION: Protecting vulnerable people is the new 'volume demand' in policing. Chief Superintendent Gavin Thomas, Vice President of the Police Superintendents' Association of England and Wales, outlines the need for a consistent approach to vulnerability.

OPINION: Jonathan Clifton, IPPR's Associate Director for Public Services, looks forward to PCCs' playing a much broader role in the criminal justice system

OPINION: Cop and comic Alfie Moore takes a wry look at PCCs, last week's elections and what lies ahead for those voted in...

OPINION: Serving officer 'Nathan Constable' argues that following the failings of Hillsborough, the argument that officers shouldn't be punished for the decisions of a small few all that time ago is pointless and wrong.

OPINION: Howard Jones takes a historical perspective in comparing the roles of PCCs and the police authorities they replaced