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English mayors warn police mergers could weaken local accountability
Several English mayors and police and crime commissioners say plans to merge England and Wales’s 43 police forces into eight to 10 large forces could weaken local accountability and neighbourhood policing. Their criticism challenges Metropolitan Police commissioner Mark Rowley’s call for radical consolidation and raises concerns that it would conflict with the government’s devolution plans.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood commissioned a review by former Met commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe, which has not yet been published and is understood to consider between nine and 18 forces. Some mayors favour boundaries aligned with mayoral regions, which could roughly halve the number of forces while giving mayors oversight of chief constables. Liverpool City Region mayor Steve Rotheram called the super-force proposal centralisation, while Greater Manchester’s Bev Craig urged the government to reject its most radical version.
In short
- Mayors warn that large regional police forces could weaken local accountability.
- The government’s review is understood to consider nine to 18 forces.
- Some mayors favour aligning force boundaries with mayoral regions.
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Originally published by The Guardian as “‘Super-force’ plans a real threat to local policing, English mayors say”.