Police force shake-up announced
The current policing structure in England and Wales is “no longer fit for purpose”, the Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) says today.
The HMIC’s Closing the Gap report, published today by former chief constable of Surrey and Inspector of Constabulary Denis O’Connor, also calls for wholesale changes to be made to the existing 43-force set-up.
Size, scope and structure of all police forces, individually and accumulatively, require change, the report says, as the policing models they are based on are dated and inefficient in dealing with today’s crime and terrorism demands.
“In the interests of the efficiency and effectiveness of policing it should change,” the report said. “The position is likely to worsen rather than improve as time progresses.
“The costs and professional sophistication needed to provide adequate standards of protective services will become ever harder to deliver for smaller forces and we now firmly believe that some reorganisation of forces and re-configuration of protective services is inescapable.”
The report recommends merging a number of smaller forces into larger ones so as to avoid personnel shortages and to retain a high standard of protective service – two areas which were found to be flagging by research.
“While some smaller forces do very well, and some larger forces less so, our conclusion is that below a certain size there simply is not a sufficient critical mass to provide the necessary sustainable level of protective services that the 21st century increasingly demands,” the report said.
It continues to encourage the Home Office, which has “in the last five years.considered the advantages of a more rational structure for policing but have shied away from radical change”, to take decisive action and conduct sweeping changes.
Home secretary Charles Clarke welcomed the report and said he would “look forward to productive discussions on the best way forward” for the police service.
