Wednesday 23 March 13.00 – 14.00 Room G1-04, Gillingham Building, Medway Campus. All welcome.

‘The completely obscure but terribly important vote; The untold story of the 2012 Police and Crime Commissioner elections’ by Rob Bailey

The election of the United Kingdom’s first Police and Crime Commissioners in May 2012 was hailed as a step forward for transparency and accountability, and as one of the biggest expansions of local democracy in generations. But the elections were a democratic disaster, attracting a national turnout rate of just 15% and sparking a debate about the legitimacy of the new candidates and their electoral mandates. For regional media, this was a new type of election with a new set of challenges. Readers did not understand the PCC role and were often unfamiliar with candidates, while the election campaign was poorly funded and unusually apolitical. Using Kent as a case study, this research considers coverage of the PCC elections in the 14 days before the vote to determine how journalists responded to this new form of election and to what extent this contributed to the faltering start of this new public role.