When I joined Sussex Police, fifteen years after England and Wales’ last major reorganisation of policing, many of those I worked with had previously served in smaller forces which, in 1968, combined to become Sussex Constabulary, later renamed Sussex Police. The amalgamation of forces was not just confined to the five that became one in Sussex but across the whole country. In total a hundred and seventeen became forty-three forces following the 1960-1962 Royal Commission on Policing which spawned the 1964 Police Act.
This merger was the last time the geographical structure of policing in England and Wales changed. Aside from the creation of the National Crime Agency (which has its roots in the Regional Crime Squads, also established in 1968), UK Counter Terrorism Policing and some other national and regional functions, in this modern era it is puzzling to understand why a major reform and restructure has not taken place since before I was at primary school.
After the 2010 general election, due to austerity, many forces merged individual functions such as HR, major crime and scientific support services. Yet still the constitutional arrangements remain as they had since the sixties with forty-three chief constables (or their equivalent) leading forty-three separate organisations, comprising forty-three infrastructures, each of them reporting to one of forty-three accountability bodies, all at considerable avoidable cost.
In July the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, observed that the current police structure in England and Wales has not been fit for purpose for two decades and that for policing to be sustainable in these straightened and challenging times the current forces should be reduced to twelve to fifteen.
The total England and Wales policing budget is close to £20 billion. As with any publicly funded body the police are under huge pressure to deliver more for less and to show greater efficiencies and accountabilities in how their money is spent. I can say from first-hand knowledge that any level of police reorganisation is underpinned by the principles of keeping the public safe and responding to emergencies. Those charged with making the changes and delivering the savings do so imaginatively and with that core mission at heart. However, legislation and short-term political agendas fetter decision makers and hampers the opportunities to reduce overheads at scale and maintain frontline policing.
In many of the metropolitan areas, (London, Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and North Yorkshire) accountability sits not with a police and crime commissioner but with directly elected mayors. Whilst this provides some efficiencies given their wider remit, over and above policing and, in some places, fire services, those areas are still coterminous with their police forces and therefore there remains little incentive to seriously consider force mergers.
Under the devolution programme six regions, including Sussex and Brighton, will also see police and crime commissioners be taken over by directly elected mayors. Again, all but one of these areas will be coterminous with the existing police force. Which of the new mayors is likely to be the turkey voting for Christmas and embark on a serious agenda to cut duplicative structures by merging with neighbours, thereby creating a strategic, flexible and future proofed service that Mark Rowley sensibly calls for? The only area under the devolution programme that does cover two police areas is Norfolk and Suffolk. Already the incumbent police and crime commissioner, whose job will disappear in nine months’ time, has already effectively ruled out the possibility of those two small forces merging under the new arrangements, despite it probably being simpler there than elsewhere.
Any major reorganisation comes with huge risks in terms of operational delivery, accountability and culture but surely now, sixty-five years on, is the time for a new Royal Commission or equivalent to provide an independent and forensic examination of policing in its totality.
This would allow proper, thoughtful and apolitical considerations to be given to how the service should be structured, funded, led and governed to meet current and future demands and threats with primary legislation brought forward to enact its findings.
If we are serious about delivering an agile and effective police service sustainable for the coming decades something substantial needs to change rather than governments of all parties continually picking the low hanging fruit then blaming those at the sharp end when they under deliver.
Former Brighton and Hove police chief Graham Bartlett’s Brighton-based Jo Howe crime novel series continues with City on Fire which is now available in paperback.
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