DON’T FORCE US TO MERGE
N.WALES’ TOP COP NOT KEEN ON NATIONAL BODY
SENIOR police officers at Wales’s four forces are divided over suggestions by the Chief Constable of Dyfed-Powys Police that they should combine to form a singular service.
Earlier this week, Dr Richard Lewis said that Wales should have a single nationwide force by 2030.
Speaking in a personal capacity, the Carmarthenshire born officer, who recently returned to Welsh Policing after managing Cleveland Police, said Wales should follow the model adopted in Scotland.
Dr Lewis said merging forces into Heddlu Cymru – Welsh for Police Wales – would be more effective than the current system.
It would make the Welsh force the third largest in England and Wales, behind the Metropolitan Police and West Midlands Police.
Speaking to the BBC, Dr Lewis said: “Doing away with those borders means we can provide a more effective service. One chief constable rather than four. One deputy chief constable. Dare I say one commissioner instead of four.”
“What policing needs across the country is further investment,” he said. “We’ve seen the government uplift figure of 20,000 officers. I’d like something similar for police staff members as well.
“My concern is around the way we structure our policing services in Wales. I understand not everybody will be of the same opinion.
“National structures do exist. What I’m proposing is a development of those things.”
However, the Chief Constables of Wales’ other three forces were dismissive of the idea.
At a session on policing in Wales at the Welsh Affairs Committee on March 30, Chief Constable of South Wales Jeremy Vaughan said it was not up to him to “instigate the conversation: “I don’t think you can go for a single Welsh police force until you devolve policing to Wales. Because otherwise, I don’t really see the benefit.”
He added that he had “no doubt” a single Welsh police force would be more efficient but “that you could provide a better service as a consequence is less clear to me. I think there are some big questions that would need resolving as to how you police Dolgellau, and how you police the centre of Swansea. You’re frankly not going to get a riot in Dolgellau ever, but we know that we had one recently in Swansea.”
Chief Constable Carl Foulkes of North Wales Police (pictured) said the force had a good working relationship with forces in the North West of England and that the crime in North Wales usually comes from “left to right rather than up and down”.
“It comes from Merseyside, it comes from Manchester. So all my working partnerships are from the North West [of England],” he said.
Mr Foulkes noted how the force already combined its units – such as dog handlers and firearms – where needed.
However he said that “our shared culture, our shared language, are absolutely in Wales. So there are some challenges for us to move and get over for us in North Wales.
“That local element Jeremy spoke about – and I hope we don’t get a riot in Dolgellau – how do you maintain that local service delivery on a national level, which could be a challenge.”
The deputy chief constable of Gwent Police Amanda Blakeman echoed Mr Vaughan’s thoughts that devolution of policing would be needed first. She said she’d worked in England as part of a strategic alliance between West Mercia Police and Warwickshire Police – “a relationship which broke down.”