Mayors Reject Met Chief's Call to Merge Police Forces
The head of the Met wants England and Wales to go from 43 police forces to as few as eight. Regional mayors, Liverpool city region's among them, say that would hurt local policing.
Rowley's case for super forces
Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan police commissioner, used a speech in Manchester on Friday to call for "eight to 10" forces. Chief constables elsewhere, Greater Manchester's included, back the idea. Senior policing figures disagree on how far the cut should go.
Rowley said police would fail without radical change. He also said reform would strengthen local policing rather than weaken it. He argued that neighbourhood policing and specialist capability go together.
Stephen Watson, Greater Manchester's chief constable, said the case for change could not be argued against. Staying with 43 forces means 43 headquarters, 43 chiefs and 43 different IT systems, he said. Senior police sources add that the Treasury will give no extra money, so the hope is that merging forces frees up hundreds of millions for officers and technology.
Mayors push back
Steve Rotheram, mayor of the Liverpool city region, described the plan as "the wolf of centralisation dressed up in sheep's clothing". He said it would undermine local accountability and run against the devolution agenda.
Bev Craig, the Greater Manchester mayor, said she would urge the government not to adopt the most radical parts of the plan. David Skaith, mayor of York and North Yorkshire, called it a serious danger to local policing. Kim McGuinness, mayor of north-east England, said a locally accountable force is the cornerstone of criminal justice.
Some mayors were privately angry, believing the aim is to corner the prime minister into the largest reform of policing for a generation. Sadiq Khan is understood to worry about accountability. The Met could also absorb the small City of London force.
The Hogan-Howe review and the boundary option
Home secretary Shabana Mahmood announced plans in January to cut the number of forces. She commissioned a review from Bernard Hogan-Howe, a former Met commissioner. It has not been published, but it is understood to set out a range of nine to 18 forces.
Many mayors favour forces that share their boundaries, since that would widen their oversight. One mayor who asked not to be named expects the prime minister to choose that route. It would roughly halve the number of forces, still about twice what Rowley and other police chiefs suggest.
Source: the Guardian