[England/Wales] Police and Crime Commissioner elections

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Is anyone planning to vote in these elections?

Turnout for these elections is traditionally pretty low. Does anyone else think they're worth the bother?

I think the idea of these elections is a bit flawed.

A police commissioner should be a civil servant not a Politician. We don't need to be like the US. That is a totally different scale to us.

Civil servants are derided and sometimes rightly so, however in its purest sense it is someone who does their duty neutrally regardless of who in office.

We have politicians already that oversee policing.

It was a popular idea to start with, but I hasn't really resulted in a better system.

Cynic that I am, I see the low turn outs for our General, local Council and MEP elections, and I just wonder whether people really want to have a choice at all. If folks won't get out to vote when it can change entire government policies, are they really going to bother to cast a well informed vote for something such as this? I doubt it somehow.

I'm fed up with the constant hyperbole about having "choice" in every little thing. When I see my doctor, I don't want to "choose" which institution treats me, I just want the treatment that is indicated by my clinical needs. For someone who is not medically trained, or knowledgeable about statistics, how could they possibly make a better choice than a trained clinician, based on a page of data that they have no context for? I go to the doctor precisely so that it is not me that has to choose, in recognition of my lack of medical knowledge.

I'll vote here in Lancashire if there's a UKIP candidate. There was last time. As I remember rightly, he was the only candidate who had actually been a policeman.