THE Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight has said moves to scrap local police forces could be the first step towards regional government.
Speaking on GB News Donna Jones said: “I truly believe in localism [and] in true devolution, and what we’re seeing from this government is quite the opposite of that.
“I am seriously concerned about the story that’s leaked,once again into The Times yesterday, about the plans for 12 big super regional police forces.
“Now let’s just take, for example, my force in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, versus the Metropolitan Police. 11 million people in London, one of the largest police forces in the world, certainly the largest police force in Europe, and we’ve seen knife crime in London go up 23% in the last year.
“In my police force, a historic county police force, we have seen knife crime drop 27.1%. This is because I’m a police commissioner who has a grip of my force. I have a grip of what my chief constable is doing. I’ve reintroduced local bobbies. I’ve opened eight new police stations in the last 18 months, and I’ve got three more I’m opening next year.
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“And when you have strong local leadership connected to local people, what you get is much better outcomes.
“The urban areas suck up the police resource, they suck up the local police officers, firearms officers, public order for the protests, for example, in Bristol. And that really does leave rural communities really at risk.
“Organised crime in rural communities is growing; criminals will exploit all opportunities. But just coming back to what we have seen in the media, and this announcement of clearly, police chiefs across the country, and by that, I mean the chief constables have been working together with the Home Office now for over a year.
“12 regional police forces proposed, and on the same day that they announced the police reform white paper was being pushed back until March, it’s the same day that we had the announcement that the mayoral elections planned for next year – my area is one of them also being pushed back.
“I think the Labour government could be moving towards announcing regional government across the country, announcing it in the spring next year.
“I really do think this is going back to regional government, as we saw under the previous Labour government 15 years ago. It didn’t work then, I don’t think it will work now. I don’t think that’s what English communities want.
“And whilst the Labour government are saying they’re committed to devolution, what you actually get tied up in the name of devolution with regional government is, in fact, more centralisation, and I am against that.
“[Hampshire is] in the south east – just. We would be in with, I would imagine Thames Valley Police and that area. So that’s Oxfordshire. Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Berkshire, Milton Keynes, perhaps even as far up as Northamptonshire.
“There is no connection from Northamptonshire to the people that live in Ventnor on the southern tip of the Isle of Wight.
“I think you could also introduce another level of bureaucracy, a Mark Rowley type Commissioner that would sit above the existing police forces.
“And we know why they’re looking at doing this, because they made a commitment for 13,000 more police officers. They thought they could cut fat off the bone after the general election. Yvette Cooper failed to do that and, as a consequence, they’re now looking at police force reorganisation in order to save money to fund their whim of these extra police officers.
“I just don’t think it will work.”