September 16, 2005: Fewer Police Forces?

The existing structure of 43 separate police forces is "no longer fit for purpose", according to a new report from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary.

The original version of this report was presented to Home Secretary Charles Clarke on 13th September 2005. It examined service provision in a number of key areas, including counter terrorism and serious and organised crime, from the national perspective. 'Closing The Gap: A Review Of The ‘Fitness For Purpose’ Of The Current Structure Of Policing In England & Wales' recommends substantial and radical change. This may lead to some smaller forces being merged.  perspective. However, the overall findings do not identify individual forces.

The report's declared aim is to assess the whether the current structure of policing in England and Wales can :

"provide effective and sustainable protective services to a common standard in the future”.

It concludes that:

” whilst Basic Command Unit (BCU) arrangements and neighbourhood policing provides a solid local platform for the future, the current 30 year old, 43 force structure of widely different sizes, and capabilities does not.”

The reports suggests that the future policing environment will be characterised by:

•  Widespread enterprising organised criminality, proliferating international terrorism and domestic extremism;
• A premium on intelligence, expertise and smart use of capacity;
• An increasingly risk concerned public and intrusive media.

The delivery of policing must therefore be:

“on a scale large enough to respond dynamically, but local enough to understand the diverse context within which it operates".

Very few of the existing 43 police forces are assessed as fully meeting the required standard. The report notes that…

“… size matters: larger forces are likely to have much greater capability and resilience whilst smaller forces, in many cases, find it hard to provide the services to an acceptable standard…”

“Forces with over 4000 officers, or 6000 staff, tended to meet the standard across the seven protective services measured, in that they demonstrated good reactive capability with a clear measure of proactive capacity. Forces below that size tended to fall someway short of the standard, with, in general, the smallest forces faring the least well."

However:

“some smaller forces were almost as successful as the majority of larger forces, whilst two relatively large forces (5000+ staff) received surprisingly low scores.”

The size of individual police forces impacted upon the community’s vulnerability in relation to counter terrorism and domestic extremism, serious and organised crime and public order.