The United States has given us some wonderful things over the years: from aeroplanes to Microsoft, Elvis Presley to Hollywood.

The land of opportunity provides a freedom and a market place that encourages new thinking and can make you a millionaire overnight.

But that doesn't mean we should think that what works over there will work over here - a mistake I feel Conservative Shadow Home Secretary Oliver Letwin has made.

With the Tories still struggling in the polls despite all Labour's mid-term problems, the Opposition is desperate to come up with radical ideas to grab the initiative.

And, at first glance, the idea of locally-elected mayors having the chance to hire and fire chief constables according to their performance has its attractions.

Mr Letwin's proposal seems a way of ensuring the public have a direct input into deciding what the policing priorities should be and real teeth if their wishes aren't carried out.

The first point to make is that this system has developed in the US because of its Wild West history, when the local sheriff was appointed by the mayor to keep the peace. But in Britain we do things differently. The chief constable has a constitutional independence as far as operational policing is involved: it ensures that he can carry out his job without political interference.

Mr Letwin appears to be suggesting that Britain's chief constables are not up to scratch, that this scheme has to be brought in to keep them on their toes. He also appears to be suggesting that a new breed of supermayors or sheriffs be introduced with a remit covering the same geographical areas as that of a chief constable.

In Teesside, for example, Stockton, Middlesbrough, Hartlepool and Redcar would be joined under one banner. Perhaps they would call it Cleveland County Council. Hang on though, didn't the Conservatives disband such a body only ten or so years ago?

And in a massive area such as North Yorkshire, would the people in the villages be happy with an elected mayor based in the city of York, dictating police priorities to the chief constable?

But we already have legislation which works by addressing the problem locally rather than regionally. The 1998 Crime and Disorder Act makes it a statutory responsibility for local authorities and the police to work together with the public and other agencies to combat crime.

We have been doing this in Middlesbrough for the past 12 months. The result is a 17 per cent fall in overall offending. We have also had major success in tackling local problems, such as prostitution in residential areas and aggressive begging in the town centre.

If chief constables fail in their duties, locally-elected politicians already have a mechanism through the police authority to influence and, in extreme cases, remove them.

Mr Letwin needs to go back to the drawing board if he wants to come up with a workable idea for improving policing in Britain, but his intervention does prove one thing. Law and order will once again be a major battleground in the next General Election.

Published: 10/10/2003