Sir Mark Rowley backs plan to cut police forces to eight to 10

Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, has called for urgent reform of policing in England and Wales. He warned that the current system is heading for failure and proposed replacing the 43 separate forces with eight to 10 large regional forces. Channel 5 described the plan as creating around nine super forces.

Under the proposal, a new National Police Service would sit above the regional forces and tackle the most complex crimes. Channel 5 reported that it would cover terrorism, fraud and organised crime and oversee technology for the regional forces. It said the regional forces would handle murders, drugs and county lines. The plans would put savings into local policing teams, with targets on 999 calls and response times, and add 13,000 neighbourhood and community support officers, Channel 5 reported.

Rowley said the 43-force structure was overstretched and unable to keep pace with organised crime, cyber attacks and online abuse. BBC News reported he argued that local policing teams could not win without specialist support in surveillance, financial investigation, firearms and other covert work. It also reported he said 20 years of trying to make 43 forces collaborate on advanced technology had gone too slowly.

BBC News reported that police and crime commissioners in rural areas feared mergers would take resources to high-crime city areas and leave smaller towns with less policing. It also reported estimates that merging forces could cost more than £1 billion. BBC News said the Home Secretary had launched a consultation on the future of policing earlier this year.

Channel 4 reported that Scotland's merger of forces more than a decade ago was found to have created systemic problems at cost. It said critics argued the changes could consume the savings promised. Channel 4 also reported that some critics accused senior officers of crossing a thin blue line into politics. Channel 5 reported a critic saying that creating mega forces would cost millions when policing had little free money.

Daniel Sandford, BBC News UK correspondent, said there was agreement on a new national police service but disagreement over creating eight, nine or 10 regional mega forces. He said smaller forces could not be experts in everything, but the Cheshire chief constable argued that a bigger force could pull specialist teams away to inner-city areas. The new prime minister's position on the plans is not yet clear.

Emma Vardy, reporting for BBC News, said Middlesbrough had the highest recorded crime rate of any force area in England and Wales. Its chief constable told the BBC that his force had seen the largest decrease in officers since 2010. Channel 4 reported that the region's chief constable backed the reforms, saying his force was doing the best it could with what it had.

Rowley argued that major structural change was the only option and that the cost of standing still was that criminals would win.