Professor Megan O’Neill

Professor Megan O’Neill, chair of criminology within the university’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, is a leading researcher of crime, policing, and surveillance and society. She has studied the creation of Police Scotland extensively and believes many of the problems that have plagued Scotland’s single police force since its inception in 2013 can be traced to a determination to “rush” a highly complex integration of eight very different models of policing.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is today announcing the biggest shake-up of policing in England and Wales for more than half a century which, she says, will tackle an “epidemic of everyday crime”. The reduction in the number of regional police services is among the most contentious and heavily trailed aspect of the proposals and bring to mind Scotland’s experiences of merging forces.

Professor O’Neill believes the UK government can learn from this example and avoid making the same mistakes while ensuring the needs of citizens and the state are better met.

She said: “The proposed restructure of the 43 police forces in England and Wales is timely and needed. The current structure has been in place since 1974, when policing, and funding for policing, looked very different to what is in now. 21st-century policing challenges could be better met by improved organisation of fewer forces as well as potential cost reductions.

“Some of this is already happening – Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Constabularies already share facilities and operational units. Small forces like this could better serve their communities by a more centralised model that will offer a more consistent level of service and resources.

“The government is proposing to take time to plan out what the restructure will look like, up to eight years. This is a wise move. The merger of the previous eight police forces in Scotland to the single Police Service of Scotland (Police Scotland) was done in just 18 months. The restructure in Scotland was rushed through to such an extent that there were still problems of aligning systems 10 years later. In addition, there were eight police force ‘identities’ that needed time to adapt, and this was not handled with the care that was needed to ensure that officers and staff felt that they were part of the decision-making process. This had a significant impact on the morale of officers and staff.

“This restructure also offers the chance to re-think how major units, like counter terrorism, which concern the entire country, are addressed. The current model houses counter terrorism in the Metropolitan Police in London. This places a great deal of national responsibility in one territorial police agency. It also offers an opportunity to better invest in infrastructure and training to address cyber and digital crimes. Many police forces are struggling to keep pace with developments here, and better infrastructure and centralised guidance and support is much needed.

“A major challenge, of course, will be to also maintain or improve local policing. It was the last Labour government which instigated the national Neighbourhood Policing model from 2007-2010, which showed good results but was expensive due to levels of staffing. Every local area had a dedicated Neighbourhood Policing Team, which included local community police officers, special constables and Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs). However, the number of PCSOs now is fewer than half of what it was at its peak in 2010. So, while local policing will be very important in the new structure, it will not come cheap and needs to be done thoughtfully to be done well.”