Too many police chiefs? - A review of police strength and costs in England & Wales 2010

SUMMARY OBSERVATIONS - THE PROS AND CONS OF FORCE MERGERS Police forces match local government boundaries – already effective accountability can be strengthened

There are a number of forces where local government boundaries already reflect the police force’s jurisdiction. These places – such as Gloucestershire, where the Constabulary covers the same area as the County Council, and the Metropolitan Police which covers the Mayor of London’s area of responsibility – already show signs of greater accountability and ownership. For example Gloucestershire County Council has funded new police officers for the force, as has the Mayor of London. In these cases accountability can be strengthened, for example through the introduction of direct elections where they do not currently take place. Police Authorities for the changed force would comprise local councillors and independent members.

Suggestion : Condense the 43 existing forces into 10 regional forces

Whilst not necessarily the perfect and certainly not the only solution, it seems to make good economic and practical sense to consider merging the forces as per the APA regional map on the page that follows.

REGIONAL FORCE

North East North West

Cleveland Cheshire

Derbyshire Durham

COMPRISING OF THE FOLLOWING FORCES

Northumbria

Cumbria Greater Manchester Lancashire Merseyside

Yorkshire & Humber Humberside North Yorkshire South Yorkshire West Yorkshire East Midlands West Midlands Wales

Leicestershire Gwent Kent

South West

South East London Eastern

Avon & Somerset Devon & Cornwall

Hampshire

City Of London Metropolitan Bedfordshire Cambridgeshire

Staffordshire Warwickshire West Mercia West Midlands Dyfed-Powys

North Wales

Dorset

Surrey

Essex South Wales

Gloucestershire Wiltshire

Sussex

Hertfordshire Thames Valley Norfolk Suffolk

On the pages that follow the map, we will show the existing police officer strength by rank, grouped to show regional totals. We have then included salary per rank with the national “actual” totals shown by region. We then illustrate by example, the extent of savings that are potentially possible, by reducing ACPO & SMT numbers and the rationalisation of police staff costs and non staff costs.

58

Lincolnshire Northamptonshire Nottinghamshire

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