US EditionHome secretary considers merging police into 12 regional forces
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood aims to create around 12 regional police forces to improve efficiency, consistency, and tackle serious crime amid budget constraints.
- Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is considering reducing the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales to 12 regional mega-forces and has delayed the policing white paper until early next year for bolder reforms.
- Earlier this year, Sir Mark Rowley said the 43 forces had not been fit for purpose for at least two decades, while Gavin Stephens noted no deliberate design since the 1960s and the National Audit Office found this structure weakens forces commercially.
- Plans would include abolishing Police and Crime Commissioners, creating a new national centre of policing supporting specialist functions, pooling digital forensics across 43 forces, strengthening the National Crime Agency, overhauling the Serious Fraud Office, and adding a national focus on violence against women and girls.
- If enacted, the plan would be the largest UK policing shake-up since the 1960s, but Blair Gibbs warns voters may not see improvements before the next election due to timing and funding concerns.
- Senior police chiefs welcomed reforms to merge forces, citing efficiency from pooled technology and expertise, but officials say moving from argument to legislation remains a distinct challenge.
7 Articles
7 Articles
Could Shabana Mahmood merge the police into 12 forces?
‘The 43-force structure is no longer fit for purpose. In the interests of the efficiency and effectiveness of policing it should change.’ That was the conclusion of a review of the police service of England and Wales in September 2005 conducted by the independent policing watchdog, then known as HMIC. The findings led Tony Blair’s
Police could be merged into 12 regional 'mega-forces' in 'generational' shake-up
Police forces across England and Wales could be merged into 12 regional "mega-forces" as part of major shake-up being considered by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.The publication of a highly anticipated roadmap of policing reforms has been pushed back until the new year as Ms Mahmood intends to make more radical changes, sources have told The Times. The "mega-forces" proposal is said to be the most radical of the changes being considered by the …
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