When living in Blackpool P&CC always increased our Police precept "to put more officers on the beat" - we never saw evidence of this.
Since moving back to Cheshire 4 years ago, exactly the same thing has happened (the P&CC was a former Assistant Chief Constable in Cheshire who's on a very big police pension).
It's a useless political position, that costs us council tax payers yet another large salary.