A new national police force has been dubbed the ‘British FBI’
The chief constable of Greater Manchester Police has welcomed plans for an overhaul of policing, saying the move was ‘a long time coming’. He also praised the Home Secretary for taking ‘the bull by the horns’ by announcing the changes.
Reacting to Shabana Mahmood’s proposals, which include slashing the number of police forces and creating a new National Police Service (NPS) to tackle major crimes, Sir Stephen Watson said: “I think the Home Secretary has properly taken the bull by the horns. These are bold announcements in respect of the reform which to policing is literally decades in the coming.”
He said the current system, with 43 forces accountable to 43 people, was ‘not efficient or effective’.
Sir Stephen added: “I applaud the home secretary’s courage in bringing forward what are bold proposals. I don’t think it before time, and I think that when we talk in the language of once in a lifetime, generational, transformational change in policing. That is precisely what this is, and that, for me, is very exciting, and certainly it is due.”
He said he was ‘reasonably relaxed’ about plans which would see the Home Secretary given the ability to sack chief constables.
“The Home Secretary is accountable for much of what happens in policing’s name across the country, and if their determination is that they need to take powers in very, very rare circumstances to dispense with the services of chief constable, then that will be a decision of our democratically elected politicians,” he said.
Sir Stephen described an emphasis on local policing areas as ‘really important’ but developments such as the advent of cyber crime and a more mobile society meant structures needed to change.
He said: “There is something genuinely old fashioned about policing services that reflect a world that is no longer as it might have been 50 or 60 years ago and that’s literally what we’re talking about in terms of the current policing construct.”
Ms Mahmood said her plans were intended to respond to ‘an epidemic of everyday crime’ such as shoplifting or phone theft that was going ‘unpunished’.
On Sunday, she promised ‘a new model of policing’ that could deal with local crime while the NPS would act as a ‘British FBI’ tackling cross-regional and international crime.
Other announcements over the weekend included a £7 million investment in tackling shoplifting, including £5 million for Operational Opal, a national intelligence sharing unit targeting shoplifting gangs.
Ministers are planning a recruitment drive for volunteer special constables, whose numbers fell from more than 20,000 in 2012 to just 5,534 last year.
Police chiefs will also be told to hire more technology specialists to help tackle rising levels of digital crime as offenders exploit new technology such as deepfakes and AI.
The National Police Service (NPS) will be created to crack down on serious and complex crimes, bringing the work of existing agencies such as the National Crime Agency (NCA) and regional organised crime units under the same organisation.
Counter Terror Policing (CTP) led by the Metropolitan Police, the National Police Air Service run by West Yorkshire Police and the National Roads Policing will all be merged into the new NPS. It is hoped to lift the burden on local police forces, who are believed to be diverting time and resources away from everyday policing against shoplifting and antisocial behaviour to deal with national policing issues.
