Officers Urge Police to Merge Forces to Cope with Budget Cuts

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Officials are stressing that police forces should evidently merge in order cope with upcoming budgets cuts by up to a quarter. One of the advocates for the merger is the head of the National Police Chiefs Council, Sara Thornton, who urged for the law to be changed to allow forces to ‘amalgamate’ to cope with spending cuts.

There has been enormous criticism on the way each force buys its own uniforms, equipment and vehicles, often at vastly different costs. Mrs Thornton pointed out that now is the time to consider mergers, adding that “most would agree that fewer forces is the best option.” In her remarks, she advised that if “the desire is to maintain 43 then forces will need to collaborate more,” adding that “the idea of closer working would be helped by there being a new statutory provision that allows forces that want to work together to amalgamate.”

In addition to that, Mrs Thornton stated that “we’ve dealt with cuts of 25 per cent in Government grant in the last five years and are set for similar following the Comprehensive Spending Review in the Autumn.” She alleged that “we’re likely to have lost around 70,000 police posts by 2020. This means we have to make fundamental changes to the way we police otherwise we will fail in our service to the public and unacceptably stress our staff.” According to Mrs Thornton, “improving the way we procure equipment and services will save us some money, as will sharing more within and outside policing. But they won’t solve the problem alone.”