Yorkshire deputy police and crime commissioner hits out at ‘power grab’ over police forces
A Yorkshire deputy police and crime commissioner says he will be “amazed” if policing reforms expected to drastically cut the number of forces across England and Wales gets through Parliament.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is poised to unveil the largest overhaul of policing in decades on Monday (Jan 26), in a bid to tackle what Government sources called “an epidemic of everyday offences”.
The changes will see the overall number of forces slashed from 43, and tasked with focusing on serious and organised crime along with complex investigations such as homicides.
At the lower level, each town, city and borough will be formed into a “local policing area” – with neighbourhood officers focused on local crime such as shoplifting and anti-social behaviour.
Ms Mahmood has previously said that the structure of 43 forces in England and Wales is “irrational”, and police chiefs have already called for radical reform of the set-up, backing a system with fewer, larger forces.
However Humberside deputy PCC Leo Hammond said it was a “power grab” which departed from the British principle of “policing by consent”.
“You are putting people in charge further away from local communities.
"The Conservatives opposed it in 2006 (when the Blair government tried to reduce the number of forces). They’ve tried to do it for decades. They have always failed.”
The Tory East Riding councillor said Humberside already collaborates on back office with South Yorkshire police and the merger of Police Scotland from eight forces to one “didn’t save money or appear to improve any efficiency of service.”
He said as Home Secretary Yvette Cooper had previously “ruled all this nonsense out”.
However he said Ms Mahmood “even as Secretary of State for Justice refused to meet her own Labour PCC. When she became Home Secretary she still refused to meet them before announcing they were going to be abolished.”
The White Paper to be unveiled on Monday also proposes giving ministers direct powers to sack failing chief constables after a row over the police decision to ban Israeli football fans from a match against Aston Villa.
Under new laws, the Home Secretary will be able to sanction the retirement, resignation or suspension of the most senior officer in any force if they are found to be “poorly performing”.
It comes after the former head of West Midlands Police, Craig Guildford, stood down amid mounting pressure following a backlash to the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters from a game in Birmingham.
Section 40 of the Police Act 1996 allows home secretaries to direct local police bodies to take certain measures against failing forces, but ministerial powers to sack police chiefs were removed under the Tory-led government in 2011.