Letter to the police Authority

  The Old Colwyn (East) Residents’ Association

Cllr Ian Roberts

Chair to the Police Authority
62 Church View,
Shepherd's Lane
Chirk
Wrexham
LL14 5PF

As a formally constituted Residents’ Association, we wish to state clearly our view of the reported decision of the Home Secretary and the Secretary of State for Wales that the only way forward in policing is for the four Welsh police forces to merge into a national police force for Wales.

The reason given by them is that the force should reach a critical mass of officers, so that it can better be able to deal effectively with terrorism and the threat of serious crime including drugs.

This may be a seriously flawed error of judgement in our collective view. Each of the policing areas of Wales has distinctive geographical and demographic considerations which may tend to make each likely to be more successful by cooperating or merging with a near neighbour. Cooperation or mergers of police forces require serious consideration of geographical and other issues, whereas the manner in which this so called consultation process has been conducted leads us to believe, with some concern, that the Government has a serious further agenda.

The agenda can only be guessed at of course but one thing is for sure, underpinning the decision will be Labours’ future exercise of control. That is what they seek to do with every part of our life today.

They have shown their colours recently in the way that they encouraged ACPO to engage in the lobbying process for the 90 day detention of terrorism suspects. With fewer police forces, there would be fewer chief constables to consult (or instruct) whatever the issue. However much we agree or disagree with the style or policies of an individual Chief Constable, our present system makes the Chief Constable near and accountable at a local level for local policing. It would not be so with a National Police force, there would be, as is the case within the Government itself, greater cost more layers of procedure and more resources required in management. There will possibly be a diminution of local policing to give resources to the central needs of a super-force.

Mr Hain has mentioned that there will still be a concentration on local policing but he probably means through Basic Command Units with CBMs and CSOs, which though committed, is not constant.

The only probable logical reason for Charles Clarke and Peter Hain to come out so strongly in favour of one police force for Wales is that of a future intention to devolve policing to the National Assembly.

If eventually, policing is to be devolved to the Welsh Assembly, there is probably a strong argument for retaining the North/South localisation by joining the four forces into two. This is partially because of the distance involved and the poor transport infrastructure in Wales. No matter what the structure of the force nationally, it would still require “divisions” at least as big as the present individual forces with “Divisional Commanders” in charge of the areas, as are the present Chief Constables. The only apparent real benefit from a Home Office viewpoint is getting rid of three Chief Constables and making the boundaries of the four forces seamless. This optimisation is achievable with due process and consultation, without this apparent knee jerk type of action.

If this merger takes place in the way that it is progressing, it has the possible outcome that it will create more problems than it will cure, especially in terms of public perception of the accountability of policing.

This reorganisation is apparently a government ‘optimisation’ of the police service in Wales without proper thought or consideration.  It is happening without the proper consultation process and in our opinion could be seriously flawed. We urge the Police Authority to do everything in its power to delay the process and seek due consultation and informed debate by our elected representatives in Parliament and fight against ill considered change from the Home Office.

Yours sincerely

DJ CURTIS

Secretary      

CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO THE TOP