Wiltshire PCC warns mega-force plans risk sidelining local communities
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Wiltshire PCC warns mega-force plans risk sidelining local communities |
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Wiltshire Police and Crime Commissioner Philip Wilkinson has joined fellow Police and Crime Commissioners in warning that plans to replace local police forces with large regional "mega-forces" risk weakening policing, reducing accountability and ignoring views of local communities. He has also challenged proposals to replace local police forces with large regional organisations, warning the biggest restructuring of policing in a generation is being driven by a small number of senior policing leaders rather than the public they serve. This comes after comments made by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley this morning called for major reform of policing structures. Mr Wilkinson said he agreed policing needed reform but warned creating larger police forces was not - in itself - a solution to the challenges policing faces today. Mr Wilkinson said: “We should not assume that creating larger police forces will solve the problems policing faces today. "Many of those challenges are about leadership, performance, workforce planning, culture, public confidence and accountability. Simply creating larger organisations does not automatically solve any of them." Mr Wilkinson said one of his biggest concerns was that the debate was being driven from within policing rather than by the public. "I have no doubt those advocating major force mergers want to improve policing but the fact remains this debate is currently being driven by a relatively small number of senior policing leaders rather than by the public," he said. "Before we embark on the biggest restructuring of policing in a generation, we should be asking a simple question: is this what communities actually want, and what evidence do we have that it will improve outcomes? “We should also be asking how much is this going to cost? Because one thing is for sure, it will not be saving money to put more officers on the street, it will lead to decades of disruption with public finances diverted into restructure and organisation – not fighting crime, not making people safer.” | ||
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