By Philip Allott, former North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner
Earlier this year the Government announced plans to replace the 43 police forces of England and Wales with just 12 regional ones. North Yorkshire Police would cease to exist, folded in with neighbours such as West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and Cleveland. The proposal has drawn surprisingly little public reaction, and I doubt many residents have grasped what it would mean locally.
The argument for change is mainly financial: fewer senior management teams, less duplication, and more buying power for everything from patrol cars to uniforms. On paper those savings look attractive. But policing in this country has never been only about cost. It works by consent, and consent depends on officers who are visible in, and part of, the communities they serve. That means keeping the police stations in Harrogate, Knaresborough and Ripon open. A distant headquarters in Leeds, Sheffield or Newcastle would see them as entries on a spreadsheet, and might offer an officer in the library for a few hours a week instead.
Reorganisations on this scale are rarely quick or cheap. Paying off experienced officers, closing buildings and designing new command structures all cost public money, and new organisations can take years to bed in. In the meantime, chief officers would be focused on restructuring rather than on fighting crime.
What the inspectors found
The timing of this proposal is striking. The latest PEEL inspection of North Yorkshire Police by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, published this year, rated the force good in six of the nine areas examined, including leadership, crime prevention, safeguarding and tackling fraud. The Chief Inspector said she was pleased with the force’s performance in keeping people safe, reducing crime and serving victims. She also noted a stable chief officer team, sound governance and typical funding levels.
The share of crimes ending in a positive outcome, such as a charge, has risen steadily for two years and now stands at 13.8 per cent, ahead of the national median of 12.2 per cent. The force answered 91.8 per cent of 999 calls within ten seconds, beating the national standard. Its neighbourhood teams were described as well established, and its work with schools to steer young people away from knife crime was highlighted as promising practice.
The report is not uncritical. Responding to the public and investigating crime were rated adequate, and custody requires improvement. One in five calls to 101 goes unanswered, rural emergencies are reached on-time less often than urban ones (79 per cent against 85 per cent), and investigations need better allocation and supervision. But these are local management problems with local solutions, several of them already under way. None of them requires a merger.
Why a bigger force won’t fix them
First, the greatest threat to local policing is officers being taken away from it. Inspectors found that more than a quarter of neighbourhood officers were pulled from their community duties every week. In a regional force also covering Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield and Middlesbrough, the pull of urban demand on North Yorkshire’s officers would be far stronger.
Second, rural attendance times are already the force’s weakest; a regional control room far from the Dales and the Moors will not improve them.
Third, the inspectors credit recent progress to stable leadership and a force that understands its own demand. A merger would unsettle precisely those things.
Fourth, the force is part way through upgrading officers’ mobile technology so they can spend more time out on patrol rather than back at the station. Merging the IT systems of several forces would set that back by years.
Lessons we have already been taught
Scotland combined eight forces into a single national service in 2013. Getting its IT to work took years, and Police Scotland had no single national crime recording system until around a decade after the merger. Some senior officers believe the loss of local identity has distanced policing from the communities it serves, cutting it off from intelligence held by local community leaders.
Nearer home, North Yorkshire and Cleveland set up a joint Major Investigation Team for serious crime in 2016. It was later wound up because Cleveland’s heavier caseload meant North Yorkshire detectives were spending more time on Cleveland’s cases than their own.
The Association of Police and Crime Commissioners has made the same point: policing begins in the local community, and people are far more willing to share information with a service they recognise and trust.
Accountability and devolution
Today, North Yorkshire’s elected Mayor and his deputy for policing and fire oversee the force, can raise residents’ concerns directly with it and, in the most serious cases, can remove the Chief Constable. If the Home Secretary takes over that power, as planned, what meaningful say will local Mayors have? For a government and new prime minister committed to devolving power to communities and mayors, this moves power the wrong way.
Not every part of the reform is wrong. I support the Home Secretary’s plan for a properly funded national force for serious crime, combining the National Crime Agency and Counter Terrorism Policing, which would be better placed to tackle organised crime that crosses borders.
But North Yorkshire stands to lose more than most from mergers. It has the lowest crime rate in England, while the North East has the second highest. If our officers are drawn towards hotspots there or into the larger cities, residents of Harrogate, Knaresborough, Ripon and our rural communities will see less of them, while probably paying a higher regional precept for the privilege.
I am asking the Government to base any decision on evidence rather than savings alone. The inspectors have just shown that North Yorkshire Police is improving under its own steam. That evidence is there for anyone willing to look.
Have your say by completing the online enquiry form at www.northyorkshire-pfcc.gov.uk/contact/enquiry/ or by emailing info@northyorkshire-pfcc.gov.uk.