Met chief says county police forces ‘failing for two decades’

Met Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has called for the creation of 12-15 mega forces as part of ‘the first serious reform of UK policing in over 60 years’.

Writing in The Sunday Times, Sir Mark said the current system of 43 county forces had not ‘been fit for purpose for at least two decades’ and said larger forces would help utilise modern technology, while reducing ‘expensive’ governance.

‘The 43-force model was designed in the 1960s and hasn’t been fit for purpose for at least two decades,’ he said.

‘It hinders the effective confrontation of today’s threats and stops us from fully reaping the benefits of technology.

‘We need to reduce the number of forces by two-thirds, with the new bigger and fully capable regional forces supported by the best of modern technology and making better use of the limited funding available.’

He said Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ decision to increase police funding by 2.3% above inflation each year in the recent spending review was ‘disappointing’.

Sir Mark’s comments come after last month, Gavin Stephens, chairman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, warned forces were facing difficult choices, warning that some would ‘struggle to make the numbers add up’ as the cost of borrowing spirals.

Some forces have increasingly relied on borrowing, and the cost of debt is expected to rise by 49% in the next three years.

Force chiefs want greater say over how they structure their workforces, with the removal of restrictions on ring-fenced funding that was granted by the previous government to replace officers cut during austerity.

Mr Stephens said policing needs a variety of workers other than officers, including cyber specialists, crime scene investigators and digital forensic experts, in the same way that ‘the health service is much more than just about doctors’.

He added: ‘We know that the Government had some very difficult choices to make, as a consequence of this, policing is going to have some very difficult choices to make too.’

Earlier this year, Scotland Yard fired 1,700 staff members after a £260,000,000 budget shortfall.

Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan announced in April that they would invest £1.16 billion to the ‘underfunded’ Met Police, which has been shrinking rapidly.

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