Police chief backs plans to merge forces

Greater Manchester's chief constable has said he supports the government's plans for a radical reform of policing.

Sir Stephen Watson's comments came after Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced proposals to reduce the number of forces from 43 to 12, and create a UK equivalent of the FBI to tackle some of the most serious crimes.

Watson acknowledged there was some "nervousness" about the plans, but said the current system of having 43 chief constables and the same number of police and crime commissioners was "not effective or efficient".

But critics of the government's plans have said "regionalised" forces would make policing more remote and bring additional costs.

Watson, who has led Greater Manchester Police (GMP) since 2021, said he believed Mahmood had "taken the bull by the horns" by pressing ahead with her reform agenda.

The suggestion of cutting the number of forces to 12 was first proposed by then-Home Secretary Charles Clarke in 2012.

Watson said Mahmood's plans were "bold announcements in respect of a reform which to policing is literally decades in the coming".

He said he thought it would be a "mistake purely to view the announcement through the prism of the amalgamation of forces".

Watson explained: "I think that the whole of what has been proposed is better viewed through that which happens at the very localised level, that which happens at the regional level, and that which happens then at the national and international level."

As part of the plans, a National Police Service would be created to tackle terrorism and serious organised crime.

Watson added: "I do understand that there is a nervousness that this notion of 'super mega forces' and things that are drawn increasingly away from the local will have a detrimental effect. Now that could be the case.

"I think this announcement mitigates that risk by speaking very specifically to the local, because the local is immensely important.

"Whatever we do, has to be built out from the local."

Since the plans were announced, critics have argued that "bigger does not mean better" when it comes to policing.

Jonathan Ash-Edwards, the Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner for Hertfordshire, said that "huge regional police forces will be slower to respond, less interested in local priorities, harder to hold to account and more likely to divert resources away from neighbourhood policing".

He also pointed to figures that showed Police Scotland - which was created in 2013 through the amalgamation of eight forces - was only considered to be doing an "excellent or good job" by 45% of people, down from 61% when forces were separate.

However, Watson said it was "absolutely possible to commit significant reform" without undermining local community trust.

"I think the emphasis on the local policing areas is really important because I do understand, and have myself reflected on these issues very carefully, as people might imagine," he said.

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