Merger of neighbouring police murder units ‘still a possibility’

Senior officials at West Yorkshire Police and North Yorkshire Police have been in talks over a possible shared major crime unit to cope with times of greater demand.

They have revealed that a two-force merger will not happen “in the medium term” because of a “structural review” currently going on in West Yorkshire but have not ruled out teaming up in future.

It comes as crime commissioners in Yorkshire and the Humber announce plans to start a review of the police functions that are currently run on a region-wide basis to ensure they “deliver the best services”.

North Yorkshire’s new chief constable revealed on his first day in office last week that the region’s four police forces could share specialist and resource-intensive services like major crime investigations to save money.

The force this week announced plans to dramatically expand its major crime unit, which investigates homicides, kidnap, stranger rape and corporate manslaughter, to a team of 31 with the help of £300,000 in extra funding.

The enlarged unit will be based at the new Harrogate police station and will be in a stronger position to investigate live cases of major crime and conduct cold case reviews and reinvestigations.

A report by North Yorkshire Police said the scheme would make the force more resilient in times of great demand. Currently it only has a small major crime unit and takes on detectives from other areas for bigger cases.

The report said: “Resilience through greater effectiveness increases under a single force major crime unit but it should further improve under a joint agreement.

“It also smoothes the resource demand spike North Yorkshire Police would otherwise have to manage, often to the detriment of other policing services.”

The current major crime unit in North Yorkshire, which has one of the lowest crime rates in the country, deals with an average of five murders a year but has seen four in the past three months. West Yorkshire Police’s Homicide and Major Enquiry Team (HMET) investigates dozens of murders and major incidents every year.

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police’s HMET said: “West Yorkshire Police have been in discussions with North Yorkshire about the possibility of working together on major investigations at some point in the future but no decisions have been made and are not expected to be made imminently.”

Details of a possible merger between West and North Yorkshire’s major crime teams first emerged in 2011 as a means to save money and increase efficiencies in the face of Government cuts.

Forces have in recent years agreed to regionalise services including underwater search, organised and cross-border crime, firearms training and some back office functions.

Dave Jones, the new chief constable of North Yorkshire Police, told the Yorkshire Post that major crimes and homicide were among the services that could be considered for “regional collaboration” in future.

He said: These are specialised and very expensive for forces to provide on their own...you would get economies of scale if you share. These are things we are engaging on with all the commissioners in the region and my fellow chief constables as we all recognise that we all face financial challenges and if we can get our act together we will all benefit.”

While investigating further merger possibilities, the forces have also launched a review into the effectiveness of the current regional policing arrangements.

South Yorkshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Shaun Wright said he intended to “continue with many of the arrangements I have inherited”.

He said the review to establish whether the regional arrangements “deliver the best services and best value for money” was timely as three of the region’s four forces have appointed new chief constables in 2013.