WE ALL need to engage with the whole idea of having a police and crime commissioner (PCC) a lot better.

Too much public money is at stake for us all to look the other way. The average turn-out for the PCC elections last time round was just over 15 per cent, which is obviously abysmal.

The truth is that if you asked people what the Police Authority was five years ago most people did not have a clue. So to expect people to engage in its replacement has always been a tall order.

But the idea of having a recognisable person in charge of holding our force to account is sound. Someone we can all call on to ask searching questions about whether chiefs are making sure that officers come running when we feel we need them. When we’ve been burgled, when we feel under fear of attack.

PCCs must ask questions about what matters to taxpayers and not get too bogged down in looking at the force as if they are within it. You should not need experience of how the police work. It's more about what we all want.

These PCC roles should be more about what people want from their forces and whether they are getting it.

Naivety about the inner workings of the force and a distance from that can be a real strength here. There’s a risk that PCCs across the country are too concerned with the same issues as the police chiefs – about running the force instead of what they are achieving for the public. If the turnout is dire again on May then that is probably why.

Katy Bourne’s communications chief earns more than £70,000 – only £14,000 less than her.

Her office costs in total are £1.3 million a year – more than the Police Authority that she replaced. She also spent more than £3 million on commissioning community safety, victim support and restorative justice services, which were not part of the police authority’s role.

It’s time we all took an interest.