Too many police chiefs? - A review of police strength and costs in England & Wales 2010
SUMMARY OBSERVATIONS - THE PROS AND CONS OF FORCE MERGERS
Along with force mergers would come the rationalisation of the rank and support structures.
Examples of potential savings from structural reorganisation
Without a detailed examination of the activities and spans of control of senior officers, it is not possible to produce a precise estimate of the potential savings that could be gained through rationalisation of police management layers. However, the following calculations are useful for indicating the potential cost opportunity.
• West Midlands is a high performing force with 81 per cent of its officers at constable level. Only between 72 per cent and 79 per cent of officers are constables in other forces. If all police forces were to manage their constables with the same amount of senior officers as west Midlands, savings would free resources equivalent to at least 6,326 frontline officers.
•
Removing Chief Superintendent and Chief Inspector roles would save around £12 million, even if the same personnel were retained at Superintendent and Inspector levels. (The Chief Supt to Insp ranks cost £556million basic salary. By the Chief Superintendent and Chief Inspector ranks dropping to the lower rank, it would reduce the cost to £544 million).
• •
If the current ratio of three Sergeants for every Inspector could be increased to six Sergeants for every Inspector, this would result in savings of over £178 million per year.
If a ratio of eight frontline staff for every officer of management rank could be achieved, this would result in savings of at least £1 billion per year.
Examples of potential savings from support function reconfiguration
Without a detailed examination of the activities across the BCUs and forces it is not possible to produce an accurate Estimate of the potential savings that could be gained through centralisation of support functions. However, in commercial enterprises, sharing support functions across geographic areas and/or business units has reduced costs for those functions of between 15 per cent and 50 per cent.
At current resource levels, a 25 per cent reduction in staff numbers would free at least £500 million per year for frontline policing work.
65
Chapter 5
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111