Police superintendents back national police force
The Police Superintendents’ Association has backed suggestions that a national force should replace the current structure of regional police forces.
Its backing for the idea forms part of its detailed response to a November Home Office consultation on reform of the police service.
The PSA argues that individual forces have worked hard to improve their performance, but adds: “We would contend that we have now reached the point where further significant improvement cannot be achieved without stepping outside the current structural arrangements.”
In November 2003, David Blunkett launched a consultation entitled “Policing: Building Safer Communities Together” in which he suggested that policing should be “deeply rooted” within the community so the service is responsive, but located within a national structure.
The PSA suggests that a “national police force deployed through a regional structure” would be the best way of managing change, arguing that this would provide a consistency of approach nationally, as well as allowing local flexibility.
Acknowledging that this proposal is controversial, it says: “We recognise that the proposal to create a national police force does not appear to sit comfortably with the received wisdom that British policing is best provided by local units allied to traditional boundaries.
“It is however our firm view that our proposal would provide precisely such a structure at the most local level and would simultaneously provide the consistency of approach which is so glaringly absent at the present time.”
Its submission claims that the current 43 police forces are “aligned to boundaries which no longer reflect government structures in the regions, or the very local identities felt by individual communities”.
The PSA notes that its members are struggling to meet national targets at the same time as providing local policing and “in particular, resources are made available to them in accordance with force priorities rather than national or local priorities.
“They are however increasingly held to account by external agencies that use national targets, policies and best practice as their points of reference. From our members point of view this is at best unfair and at worst can skew the delivery of local policing services.”
Seeking an alternative model, it applauds the creation of the new Serious and Organised Crime Agency, and argues this should be a model for future policing. It urges a further expansion of the SOCA’s role, saying: “We believe that a developed national police structure will have sufficient resilience to cope with extraordinary events including international terrorism.”
However, in an indication that the police themselves are divided on structural change, Chris Fox, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said he perceived no discernible benefit in a national police service.
“We must have a cohesive police service, able to deal with everything from the neighbourhood to the international.
“A national police service would be too remote and too complex.”
