Policy Hub
On 26 February 2009, the think tank Reform published a report (A new force) which argues that regional police forces should be split into smaller units while the Metropolitan Police should be entrusted with serious crime fighting across England and Wales.
The report claims that the current 43 forces constitute the most expensive police service in the world but fail to deliver security against serious national crimes, such as guns, drugs and people trafficking, and local crimes such as anti-social behaviour. It contends that repeated reviews of policing have suggested that the most desirable outcome would be for a single force to assume sole responsibility for the coordination of serious crime fighting – the Metropolitan Police – with up to 52 more individual forces to tackle local crime on the streets.
The report argues that the current 43 forces operate as ‘fiefdoms’, run by chief constables who are only accountable to weak police authorities. The cost is high: expenditure on policing has increased by over £4.5 billion (43%) in real terms since 1997. Policing cost per capita is higher than every OECD country where figures are available (except Scotland) and 20% higher than the US.
Police forces, with an average of 3,564 officers, are too large to effectively combat local crime. Evidence suggests that smaller forces (closer to 100 than 1,000 officers) are more efficient at dealing with low level offences.
Accordingly, the report proposes that regional police forces should be split into up to 95 city, town and county forces (at the behest of local electors). It outlines research which shows that the current police structure would allow this to take place fairly simply. In 11 places - such as London and Gloucester - forces already match local government boundaries. In 25 places, police basic command units match local government boundaries such as those for West Yorkshire and Avon and Somerset - so accountability could be aligned with comparative ease. In only 5 locations, the report argues, would a more extensive restructuring be required.