Met chief warns policing ‘heading for failure’ without regional forces
Sir Mark Rowley is using a speech on Friday to argue that policing in England and Wales is “heading for failure” unless the 43 forces are replaced by eight to ten regional ones, hundreds of local commands and a new National Police Service — the biggest reorganisation since the 1960s. “We have 43 overstretched forces trying to do too much, with too little,” he says. He also said he “wouldn’t be surprised if many more” women came forward with allegations against Russell Brand.
The Metropolitan Police commissioner says organised crime, fraud and online child abuse now run across regional and national borders while forces remain organised around local areas, and that police funding has fallen from about 0.9% of GDP to 0.7%. “Standing still looks like a degradation of policing day by day, struggling even more as criminals outpace policing because we’re not organised to meet it,” he told BBC Breakfast; asked what happens without reform, he said “the risk is failure”. Shabana Mahmood’s January white paper backed the idea and Lord Hogan-Howe is drawing possible boundaries, but Andy Burnham has not spoken publicly on the plan since July, and chief constables fear losing his backing. The Association of Police and Crime Commissioners retorted: “The case for modernisation and a National Police Service is clear. The case for reducing 43 forces to nine regional ‘mega-forces’ is not.” The Home Office said the 1960s model “is no longer fit for purpose”. On Brand, convicted of rape and three sexual assaults on Thursday, Sir Mark said two further rape allegations were being examined and that reported defence lines were “getting very close to victim blaming”.