Force 7 ‘wind of change’ blows in biggest police collaboration in UK

An “efficiency-driven” pilot project is exploring how the biggest collaboration of police forces in the UK can work together in the future.

And chief officers, faced with tasking a modern service of “rising demands and falling budgets”, will be asking the question: Is seven into one a good fit?

The scheme is bringing together the forces of Bedfordshire Police, Cambridgeshire Constabulary, Essex Police, Hertfordshire Constabulary, Kent Police, Norfolk Constabulary and Suffolk Constabulary to “maximise” joint working.

The combined population covered by those forces – which already share a £32 million police IT system – is 7.6 million, making the operational requirements bigger than Scotland and almost on a par with London.

Essex Police Assistant Chief Constable Julia Wortley is taking up a lead role – as temporary deputy chief constable – to develop future proposals on the collaborative working between the seven forces, helping to drive out inefficiencies at a crucial time for policing.

As forces are drawn ever closer, Essex Chief Constable Stephen Kavanagh admitted: “The challenges of rising demand and falling budgets are so serious that they cannot be solved by individual forces acting alone.

“If we do not find ways of making what we do more efficient and effective our prospects are grave.

“Our Essex and Kent Support Services and Serious Crime directorates show what we can do when we do it together.”

The move towards forces in England and Wales working together saw early pioneers Derbyshire Constabulary, Leicestershire Police, Lincolnshire Police, Nottinghamshire Constabulary and Northamptonshire Police collaborating over serious crime in the East Midlands.

They were closely followed by Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire forces – joined later by Cambridgeshire – in their own collaboration.

Forces in Kent and Essex broke the mould by reaching over the Thames Estuary with a joint working “first” that straddled two regions while Norfolk and Suffolk initially shied away from collaboration before agreeing to work closer together.

The seven forces in the new collaborative mix have been working side by side since the Athena IT system was installed in March.

Athena replaced local IT systems, relieving officers of having to log data individually while tracing criminals who regularly crossed county boundaries. It was billed as a “one-stop shop” for police to track data on criminals, victims, weapons and vehicles.

It was funded by on a proportional basis, with the largest forces – Essex and Kent – paying the lion’s share.

Ms Wortley, who led the Athena project, said at its launch in March that the IT system was “exciting” as it operated like criminals – across geographical boundaries.

“It is a step change in the way we police and as far as we are concerned this is just the beginning,” she added.

As for the seven-force collaboration proposals, Ms Wortley said she was looking forward to the challenge of building more projects and wanted the team of forces to be the “UK leader” in the field.

She added: “Working together efficiently across force boundaries saves time and money and ultimately improves local service delivery to the public.

“As a group of forces, we have much to do to maximise the benefits of collaboration but the incentives to do so compel us to work harder than ever to deliver policing services in a different, more joined-up way.”

Mr Kavanagh said that his former assistant chief constable’s “advice, commitment and leadership” would be hugely missed.

He added: “Her reputation within the region and experience in taking forward complex collaboration projects such as Athena makes her the perfect choice for this hugely important role.

“I would like to thank her on behalf of the force for her remarkable contribution to Essex Police.”