Councillor criticises police merger

10.36.26am BST (GMT +0100) Sun 16th Apr 2006

Councillor Trini Crake criticised the proposed merger of Northamptonshire Police into an East Midlands 'Super Force' in a letter published by both the Herald & Post and Chronicle & Echo newspapers.

Cllr Trini Crake

Cllr Crake said:-

I am writing in response to the recent proposals to merge police forces from Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire to form a new East Midlands force, the third largest in the country.

I believe merging these or any other police forces around the country would be a terrible mistake.

Any discussion of reforming the police should be focused entirely on improving the service for its users. This government thinks the way to do that is by creating 13 large forces out of the existing 43. On the contrary, research has shown a negative correlation between the size of a force and its effectiveness in tackling crime. The largest force in England & Wales, the Metropolitan Police, is actually the worst performing force, whilst the smallest two forces, Dyfed-Powys and Cumbria are the best.

A report published by the independent think tank Policy Exchange rightly points out that amalgamating forces would reduce police accountability. Not only would Northampton be policed from as far and wide as the Yorkshire borders, the Home Secretary stands to gain an unprecedented level of control to dictate the work of the police. The 2002 Police Reform Act did just this, by allowing Charles Clarke to set a National Policing Plan (NPP), instructing police forces to deal with 'volume' crimes regardless of local priorities. The new proposals will serve only to tighten the grip of the Home Secretary on a handful of Police Commissioners. As a result policing will be increasingly driven by the whims of Whitehall, rather than the needs of Northampton residents.

The cost of all this is estimated to be £500-600 million, according to The Association of Police Authorities. Based on an average salary of £27,000 pa - money that could be better spent employing 22,000 extra police officers.

We in Northampton know the heartache and suffering caused by crime and the need for a police force that understands the area it serves. I and my Liberal Democrat colleagues will fight hard to resist this centralisation and retain community based policing that is responsive to the needs of residents first and foremost.