Rural areas 'not ready to be policed by Birmingham'

Plans to cut the number of police forces across England and Wales would take the focus away from rural communities, The West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) has said.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced plans on Monday to restructure the country's police forces, merging 43 into 12 in a bid to save money.

This would include a new National Police Service to tackle the most complex and serious crimes.

However, Conservative PCC John Campion is concerned that the new model would not meet the needs of communities across Shropshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

He told the BBC he didn't think rural communities "are ready to be policed by central Birmingham".

Campion said: "We need to make sure that we have enough local policing based in our communities and a lot of our communities don't have a lot of crime, so if you're doing it on risk they will not get many police resources."

The white paper includes a focus on technological developments and a new National Centre for AI in policing to be established.

The idea is to create new AI tools for police officers to help with things like going through CCTV footage and transcribing and redacting documents.

Mahmood previously unveiled plans in November to get rid of elected Police and Crime Commissioners and recently spoke of plans to create a National Police Service, referred to as the British FBI. She said this would free up forces to tackle everyday crime.

Describing the plans as "promising", the Chief Constable of West Mercia Police Richard Cooper highlighted the need to focus on staffing.

He said: "More important than any structure is how policing is done and the people who do it. We rely on officers and staff to deliver policing in Shropshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire that is still going to be the case in five years time, 10 years time or 15 years time so structures are important.

"We need forensic analysts, we need people answering 999 calls, we need forensic technicians going through drug dealers' mobile phones and most of those jobs are better done by police staff, they don't need warranty powers. If there is sufficient investment to go alongside the plans, then there is no reason why this should lead to any fewer people."

Anti-knife crime campaigner Peter Martin, from Redditch, welcomed the plans but said the need to boost the public's confidence in their local officers should be prioritised.

He said: "For prevention we need more officers on the street and we need more officers engaging with people and educating them on the right things to do.

"I have complaints from schools all the time about lack of support from local officers, it's not good enough."

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