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Police have been offered more powers and discretion to get on with their jobs as part of a new deal by the home secretary today.
In her first major speech since her appointment, Theresa May said she wanted to cut back on Whitehall interference and put more police officers on the front line.
She promised to be "tough on crime" but unlike her Labour predecessors she had no intention of trying to run the police herself.
Addressing the Police Federation conference in Bournemouth, May said she would "not run the police", instead she vowed to work to free them from the bureaucracy that made their jobs more difficult.
"I didn't go into politics to run public services, that's the job of the professionals like you," she said.
"Professional policing means policing run by you, the professionals, not us, the politicians."
May said the role of directly-elected individuals will ensure "greater democratic accountability" but how it will work in practice is still undecided.
She promised the conference that the proposal would in "no way undermine your operational independence".
But she did warn that the Home Office in general and the police service in particular will face sacrifices as the government tries to cut the budget deficit.
May confirmed a full review of the pay of police officers and civilian staff, reassuring the federation that the government will honour the three-year pay deal, as agreed in 2008.
The new home secretary said: "I want the police to be crime fighters not form fillers, out on the streets as much as they think necessary, not behind their desk and chained to a computer.
"Perhaps most importantly of all, I want to free you by stopping all the initiatives and gimmicks that emanate from central government.
"When policing priorities are dictated by the news cycle rather than what works, you only get the most superficial, short-term change.
"We have got to entrench long-term thinking, working with laws that we've got and the powers that you already have to score the line between right and wrong in our neighbourhoods."
Criticisng the previous government's "gimmicks", May said: "Somebody once said you need to be 'tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime.' And for once he was right. He just did not really do it."
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