'All over them like a rash': Lobbyists scramble to target newly elected police commissioners Private firms have launched a major lobbying campaign of the powerful new elected commissioners heading 41 police forces, who face huge pressure to cut millions of pounds from police budgets. Security, technology and outsourcing companies will be "all over the police market like a rash" despite many candidates fighting campaigns on strong anti-privatisation tickets, one company chief executive told The Independent. One of the most powerful Police and Crime Commissioners says that he has already turned down meetings with three firms, despite scrapping a potential £1.5 billion privatisation project on his first day in office. The privatisation project suffered a major blow following the calamitous performance of G4S at the Olympic Games. Rank-and-file police organisations have fiercely opposed the encroachment of the private sector saying it will take away police jobs and place sensitive functions in the hands of the private sector. However, the companies claim a greater role would lead to potential savings and improved technology for officers. Despite setbacks over the last year for advocates of a greater private involvement in policing, one of the long-standing major players, Steria, which provides software for police control rooms, said it was trying to secure meetings with new commissioners. Steria UK chief executive John Torrie said: "Some of the people in there at the present moment are new into this market and they see it as a potentially huge market. They've recruited big forces of people and they will be all over the police market like a rash. This delay of the PCCs being appointed must be costing a lot of money to some of these organisations and they will be desperate to create those relationships and move this game forward. I just hope they don't shut more doors than they open by their approach - but we'll see. The issue of privatisation is one of the key long-term issues for new PCCs. The Tory flagship law and order policy has had a troubled start with commissioners embroiled in a cronyism row after appointing close friends as deputies. One chief constable has already quit and more than a quarter of commissioners are looking for new chief constables. G4S was part of a consortium bidding for a £1.5bn "business partnership" scheme run by the Surrey and West Midland forces. Surrey withdrew from the programme in the summer and the West Midlands Commissioner Bob Jones announced on his first day in office that he was scrapping the scheme. He has set up a new taskforce to look at a smaller technology scheme and did not rule out future roles for the private sector. Mr Jones told The Independent that companies, including Accenture and the UK arm of the controversial multinational KBR, had sought meetings with him and he had turned them down until the new review had been conducted. KBR and Accenture declined to comment. In a pointed snub to KBR, the former subsidiary of the US Halliburton group that helped build Guantanamo Bay, Mr Jones warned of ethical audits for any future contractors. He cited the case of Jack Stanley, the former US head of KBR, who was jailed in February for bribing Nigerian officials. "Ethical procurement may come into it," he said. The commissioner for Surrey, Kevin Hurley, a former police officer, said he had also been approached. I have had a number of different private sector organisations offering me either consultancy or advice. I have not engaged with any of them. The Policy Exchange think-tank, which supports a greater role for private firms, claimed that PCCs will need to sit down with private companies as they navigate a future with 20 per cent budget cuts. "Given the fact that there are huge pressures on budgets, any sensible PCC should be engaging with businesses to increase capability and free up officers for front-line duties so they can patrol the streets," said Max Chambers, the head of crime and justice. G4S secured a £200m 10-year contract with Lincolnshire police in February to build and run a police station and run back-office duties. However, plans to spread the programme to a three-force consortium are in jeopardy after Labour candidate Olly Martins was elected in November on a strongly anti-deal ticket. However Sam Chapman, the editor of the Top of the Cops website, said that a range of companies believed that the election of the PCCs could mark a major change in policing. Some candidates have strongly supported the current number of police officers ... and have rather limited their options if their budgets go down.