Shabana Mahmood 'considering bombshell UK police changes' with forces merged
Dozens of police forces could be merged in a massive shake up of law and order under consideration by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, according to reports. The 43 forces in England and Wales could be reduced to around 12 mega police forces, says the Times. The plan has not been confirmed by the Home Office. If it happened, it would end the current arrangements in which England and Wales have a mixture of small forces serving sparsely-populated rural areas alongside larger forces covering major cities.For example, Warwickshire Police has just 1,131 police officers while neighbouring West Midlands Police, which serves cities including Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton, has 7,991. There are fears that smaller forces don’t have the capacity to deal with some of the demands they face today such as dealing with cyber-crime and protecting the public from terrorism, although they already share some resources. However, a source said mergers of this type were not planned.The last Labour government also attempted to merge police forces and announced plans back in 2005, but these were abandoned in the face of local opposition, as residents in rural areas objected to seeing their local police taken over by larger city-based forces, and concern about the cost.The Government has already announced plans to give elected regional mayors responsibility for overseeing policing, replacing Police and Crime Commissioners.A White Paper setting out the Government’s plans next year will propose a “generational reform that will have a real impact on efficiencies,” a government source told the Times.Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley called for mergers earlier this year, and said the current system hadn’t been fit for purpose “for at least two decades”. He suggested creating between 12 and 15 larger forces which would be better able to use modern technology.Sir Mark said in July that the 43-force model “hinders the effective confrontation of today’s threats and stops us fully reaping the benefits of technology.”
