Force mergers would ‘dilute neighbourhood policing’, warn PCCs

Proposals to merge England and Wales’ police forces into just 12 large regional forces are being considered by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and were outlined in a briefing to The Times newspaper.

The plans are widely expected to be announced in a White Paper on police reform due to be released by the Government next week.

Speaking on behalf of the APCC, police and crime commissioners (PCCs) Matthew Scott and Clare Moody, said: “Experience shows that the creation of regional forces would be expensive, time consuming and complex to deliver and has the potential to delay, or even derail, the ambitious reform commitments made in the White Paper.

“The public want neighbourhood policing. There is no evidence to suggest the public would welcome bigger forces and in terms of public accountability, it also risks creating a separation between police forces and the local communities they serve. It makes responding to local policing and crime needs more difficult and removes the link between local taxpayers and the police they increasingly directly fund through the policing precept.

“Financial savings from creating larger force areas could be outweighed by the very significant set-up costs. We also contest the principle behind it – that bigger forces are necessarily better which is not borne out by experience and force performance comparisons.”

They added: “The findings of Lady Angiolini’s inquiry and recent evidence of shocking behaviour at Charing Cross police station shows there is much still much to do to improve standards in policing, and that delivering culture change in larger organisations is more difficult.

“Police reform has to be about more than just reorganising structures and delivering operational policing – it also has to provide robust governance nationally and locally to be able to scrutinise and address police leadership, ethics and culture.”

West Mercia Police Federation has previously warned about the potential impact on rural policing if the proposals were implemented.

It says there may be a risk local priorities could be diluted by region-wide demands, meaning issues such as farm theft, wildlife crime and anti-social behaviour are competing against urban pressures.

Branch secretary Lesley Williams said: “While a review of the current 43-force structure is welcomed, I can see our force disappearing under this new model, and being swallowed up into larger forces such as West Midlands.

“West Mercia is already a large, efficient force that understands its communities.

“There is understandable concern that decisions may be taken further away, with rural and smaller communities impacted the most.”

She added: “The loss of critical local knowledge built up by neighbourhood officers over many years is another concern.

Ms Williams warned centralisation could also affect response times and accessibility, with dispatch decisions potentially being made further from rural communities and fewer local police stations or enquiry desks in villages and market towns.

“For many of our communities, policing is built on personal relationships with named local officers,” she said. “That is something that could be eroded, damaging public confidence.

“These proposals are being presented as a way to improve access to specialist teams, better capability to tackle serious and organised crime across force boundaries, and more consistent systems.

“The Federation welcomes this as policing improvements as a whole.

“However, these must not come at the expense of local policing and visibility.”

Hertfordshire’s PCC Jonathan Ash-Edwards has also spoken out against proposals to merge England and Wales’ police forces into just 12 large regional forces, warning the move would damage public confidence and weaken local policing.

The plans would see Hertfordshire Constabulary absorbed into a regional force covering several counties.

The PCC says this would risk turning policing into a remote and unaccountable force detached from the communities it exists to police.

Mr Ash-Edwards said: “Hertfordshire is not an administrative inconvenience on a Whitehall map. It is an ambitious county that is one of the safest places to live in the UK because it has a county police force focused on the county’s crime challenges and priorities.

“Local residents rightly expect decisions about their policing and community safety to be made locally, not having to compete for attention from a distant regional command structure based miles away with little understanding of local concerns. While crime doesn’t respect administrative borders, every crime has a local footprint and harms a victim living in a local community.

“Hertfordshire’s policing should be led by people based in Hertfordshire and accountable to Hertfordshire, not run by regional commanders based in Ipswich or Peterborough.

“With the Government’s announcement of the end of the PCC model, this isn’t about me or my role, it’s about what is right to keep the people of Hertfordshire safe. I know that Hertfordshire’s police officers and staff take real pride in their connection to the county they serve.

“Bigger does not mean better. Creating 12 versions of the Metropolitan Police, the police force that is less trusted by its communities and solves less crime than the average, will not improve policing. Super-sized regional forces would be slower to respond, less interested in local priorities, harder to hold to account and more likely to divert resources away from neighbourhood policing – the very model the public consistently value the most.

“Local, accountable policing matters. It is fundamental to the British model of ‘policing by consent’ that police forces are not arms of the state. That becomes more likely the less local and the more controlled by the Home Secretary they are.”

In Surrey, PCC Lisa Townsend says any plans to merge Surrey Police with neighbouring forces would be a ‘complete disaster’ for the county’s residents.

She says the proposals could lead to the creation of ‘mega forces’, with Surrey potentially merging with other neighbouring forces in the south east.

The Government proposals are expected to say this is to save money and boost crime-fighting efforts, but Ms Townsend says says she fears this would divert resources from Surrey communities and dilute neighbourhood policing in the county.

She said: “I believe this would be a complete disaster for Surrey residents. We are the safest county in the south east with no city and much lower crime rates than our neighbours.

“My fear is that resources would be pulled away from our communities to support higher crime areas, leaving Surrey with a second-rate service.

“Surrey Police have made great strides in recent years in increasing visibility and tackling those crimes important to the public. I believe the creation of regional forces would not only be expensive and complex to deliver, but here in Surrey would result in the dilution of both local accountability and the service our residents rightly expect.

“Police reform is absolutely necessary and we want to work with the Government to create better ways to tackle issues nationally, such as serious organised crime which is expected to form part of the White Paper next week. But my fear is that any merger plans could potentially delay and derail those ambitions.

“Local policing needs to be left to local police forces to deliver. At a time when we need to rebuild public confidence in policing, these potential merger plans serve only to distance our policing teams from the communities they serve.

“Our residents deserve better than this.”