Tim Ball

Commenting on Tuesday' Reform report, which calls for a national police force and elected sheriffs, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne said:

"This report is right to highlight the repeated failures and centralisation of crime and policing policy under previous Labour and Conservative governments.

"However, a single elected sheriff could lead to a ‘Wild West' mentality, not policing that works.

"We should scrap national targets and give local people the information and power to hold their own police force to account.

"SOCA should be strengthened so it can take on the big criminal gangs, but an all powerful national police force responsible only to the Home Office risks becoming a bureaucratic and unaccountable mess."