 A decision from Charles Clarke on merger could follow Monday's meeting |
Warwickshire's police force may be merged with a neighbouring constabulary - possibly the West Midlands, the BBC has learned. The Home Secretary Charles Clarke has said that having 43 separate forces throughout the country is too many.
An announcement could come as early as Monday, when Councillor Phil Blundell, chair of the Warwickshire Police Authority, will meet Mr Clarke.
Warwickshire is one of the smallest police forces in England.
With around 1,000 officers on the payroll the Warwickshire force is larger only than the City of London Police.
In the rest of the region West Midlands Police has 8,300 officers and West Mercia has 2,400.
Mr Blundell told BBC News on Thursday he would be meeting the home secretary to discuss any possible changes to the structure of policing in the region.
He said he would be raising concerns over the level and type of policing the county would receive under any merger proposals.
 |  This would be another service that we would lose to a big amorphous centre. |
He said: "One of the strengths we have in Warwickshire is that policing is owned by local people, that they know who the local bobbies are.
"And one of the fears is that this would be another service that we would lose to a big amorphous centre."
Retired Warwickshire Chief Constable Peter Joslin said: "I genuinely fear that gradually if we move to the sort of amalgamations that are suggested, the level of policing will suffer and the control from the centre will be something that we will all come to regret."
However, Mr Blundell stressed that Warwickshire Police already work closely with neighbouring forces and any merger could be an extension of that policy.
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