Crime commissioner's concerns over police changes

Lincolnshire's police and crime commissioner (PCC) has said plans to merge police forces could be a "threat to our safety".

Marc Jones said the government's proposals to reduce the 43 existing forces in England and Wales to as few as 12 would "not make Lincolnshire better".

The changes could see Lincolnshire merge with neighbouring counties to form an East Midlands force.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said the changes would "ensure we have the right policing in the right place".

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Jones told a local policing panel meeting that although there were some positive aspects to the plan he was "really worried that if we get an East Midlands police force, that does not keep the people of Spalding or Skegness, or Horncastle or Gainsborough safer.

"Your chief constable sits in Nottingham, Leicester or Derby, has got a focus on serious and organised crime, has got a third of the country's prisoners living in the East Midlands, has got an East Midlands Airport, the highest amount of commercial freight coming through," he said.

"That does not make Lincolnshire better and I'm concerned that that still remains a threat to our safety."

Unveiling the proposals in a white paper last month, Mahmood told Parliament it represented "the most significant changes to policing in this country in nearly 200 years".

The plan also includes the creation of a new National Police Service to fight complex and organised crime, as well as anti-terrorism operations.

A Home Office spokesperson said the changes would give "officers the tools they need to catch criminals, cut crime and protect the public".

"New specialist units will take on serious and organised crime, along with complex investigations such as homicides, drugs and county lines," they added.

"Every town, city and borough will also gain a Local Policing Area, focused on delivering exceptional neighbourhood policing and taking the fight to shoplifters, drug dealers and anti-social yobs."

An independent review into the proposed police reforms is expected to begin in the summer.

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