Labour’s Police Reforms and What Could They Mean for Dorset Police?
Labour is planning some of the most far-reaching changes to policing in England and Wales for generations including dramatically reducing the number of police forces, creating a new National Police Service and abolishing directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners. For people across Bournemouth West and Dorset, one question now needs a clear answer, what will happen to Dorset Police?
Labour’s Police Reform White Paper, From local to national: a new model for policing, sets out plans to replace the current structure of 43 territorial police forces with fewer, larger forces. An independent review led by former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Hogan-Howe has been tasked with recommending the optimum number of forces and, crucially, the geographical areas they should cover.
No final map has yet been announced, so Dorset Police has not at this stage been confirmed as part of any particular merger but Labour has already made its overall direction clear: it intends to significantly reduce the number of police forces by the end of the next Parliament. That means the future of Dorset Police as an independent force is a legitimate and important concern.
Bigger does not automatically mean better
Labour argues that larger forces could reduce duplication, provide greater resilience and improve the ability of police to tackle complex and cross-border crime. Those objectives deserve consideration. Crime has changed enormously, particularly with the growth of cybercrime, organised criminal networks and offences which cross existing police boundaries however restructuring policing on this scale is a very different proposition.
Simply creating bigger organisations does not guarantee better policing. What matters to residents is whether an officer is there when they need one, whether burglaries and thefts are properly investigated; whether anti-social behaviour is tackled, whether our town centres are safe and whether neighbourhood officers understand the communities they police.
For Bournemouth West, those are the measures by which any reform should ultimately be judged. Labour therefore needs to demonstrate not simply that bigger police forces can be created, but that they will actually deliver better policing for residents.
From local to national
Perhaps the clearest indication of Labour’s direction of travel comes from the title it has chosen for its own White Paper, From local to national: a new model for policing.
Alongside the proposed force mergers, Labour intends to establish a new National Police Service. This new national body is intended to take responsibility for major national policing capabilities and tackle threats which cross force boundaries, while also setting stronger national standards.
There is a sensible argument for greater national coordination in areas such as serious organised crime, terrorism and sophisticated cross-border offending but national coordination does not have to mean weakening local policing or local accountability and the creation of a National Police Service is not happening in isolation.
At the same time, Labour is proposing fewer and larger regional police forces and abolishing directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners. Currently, Dorset residents directly elect a Police and Crime Commissioner whose specific responsibility is to hold the Chief Constable to account and represent local priorities in policing. Labour has decided to abolish that model when current PCC terms end in May 2028.
Police governance responsibilities are instead intended to transfer principally to Strategic Authority Mayors, or to elected council leaders through new Policing and Crime Boards where appropriate. Labour argues that this will integrate policing more closely with other local services but it also raises an obvious question about accountability. If police forces become substantially larger at the same time as the directly elected position specifically responsible for local police accountability disappears, will Dorset residents have more influence over their policing or less? That question deserves an answer.
More power moving towards the centre
Labour’s reforms go further still. The White Paper proposes stronger national policing standards and a new national performance framework. It also proposes strengthening the Home Secretary’s intervention powers, including restoring the ability, in exceptional circumstances, to dismiss a Chief Constable.
Taken individually, Labour can make an argument for each of these changes. Taken together, however, they represent a substantial shift in the structure of policing, fewer local forces. Larger regional organisations. A new National Police Service. The abolition of directly elected PCCs. Stronger national oversight.
Labour itself has chosen to call its reforms From local to national. Dorset residents are therefore entitled to ask exactly how much local control and accountability will remain once that transition has taken place.
What will all this cost?
There is another important question Labour must answer, how much will restructuring policing on this scale cost? The Government’s own review acknowledges that police mergers are complex and specifically requires consideration of implementation costs, including the implications of bringing together different police precepts within newly merged forces.
Major reorganisations require management time, changes to systems and structures, and potentially significant transitional expenditure. Before Dorset is asked to accept the possible loss of its existing independent police force structure, residents deserve to understand the financial consequences.
Most importantly can Labour guarantee that the cost and disruption of restructuring will not come at the expense of frontline policing in Dorset? Money spent reorganising structures is money that cannot simultaneously be spent elsewhere. Labour must demonstrate that the long term benefits of its proposals justify both the cost and the disruption involved.
Bournemouth West deserves answers
This is not an abstract argument about organisational charts in Whitehall. People in Bournemouth West want visible neighbourhood policing. They want crime investigated. They want anti-social behaviour dealt with. They want officers available when they need them and police resources directed towards the problems affecting their communities.
So the fundamental test for Labour’s reforms is remarkably simple how will these changes make people in Bournemouth West and Dorset safer? Until Labour can answer that convincingly, there is every reason to scrutinise such a fundamental reorganisation of our police service.
There is also an important question for Bournemouth West’s Labour MP, Jessica Toale. Bournemouth West Conservatives believe our MP should make clear whether she supports the potential loss of Dorset Police as an independent force and what assurances she is seeking from her Government to protect local policing, local resources and local accountability in Dorset.
Have Your Say
The final shape of Labour’s proposed larger police forces has not yet been decided. That means now is the time for Dorset residents to make their views known before decisions are taken that could fundamentally change policing in our county.
Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner David Sidwick has launched a public survey asking residents for their views on the future of policing and the proposed reforms. We would encourage residents across Bournemouth West to take part, read the Government’s proposals for themselves and consider what these changes could mean for Dorset. CLICK HERE.
Residents can also contact Bournemouth West’s Labour MP, Jessica Toale, to ask whether she supports the potential loss of Dorset Police as an independent force and what assurances she is seeking from her Government to protect local policing, local resources and local accountability.
Whatever the eventual structure, Dorset residents deserve a meaningful voice in decisions that could reshape their police service for generations. Reform should ultimately be judged on whether it makes our communities safer not simply whether it creates bigger organisations further removed from the people they serve.
'From local to national: a new model for policing' - White Paper
Independent review of police force structures: terms of reference
Article by Jo Keeling
Deputy Chair - Political
