With the look at the current strength and administration of the police (Part Va) and some of the issues facing the police at present (Part Vb) out of the way, it’s time to focus on what general policing options an independent Wales might have.
It’s right to point out that independence isn’t strictly necessary here as policing could simply be devolved – though the chances of that appear to be slim. Independence would provide a completely blank canvas, or not if we decide to keep things as close to how they are now as is possible (it’s up to us).
As mentioned above, this has been put forward as an option for Wales in the past. In 2005-2006 an all-Wales police force was mooted as part of a wider programme of mergers across England and Wales, which would’ve seen the number of territorial police forces reduced from 43 to around 12 forces with a minimum of 4,000 officers each.
The Thomas Commission didn’t make any recommendation on whether Wales should have a single police force or not and determined it should be “a decision for the future/after policing is devolved”.
Scotland merged its eight territorial police forces into Police Scotland in April 2013 and there are lessons to be learned from their experiences.
The Scottish Government believe the move would save up to £1.1billion by 2026 and they are currently on course to do that. However, the merger also resulted in the force running at a £35-40million deficit – something that was warned would happen in Wales if the four police forces merged1.
As expected, the Scottish police force merger resulted in reductions in the number of senior officers and administrators, while the number of specialist civilian staff and frontline officers increased. The Scottish Government proposed merging British Transport Police into Police Scotland but these plans were later dropped.
The merger is generally considered to be an operational success and ensured a more consistent level of service across Scotland, but (finances aside) there have been concerns over the lack of local accountability2.
Specific to Wales, there would be arguments over where the new police force would be headquartered. The Scottish Government ended up building a new £82million national “crime campus” on the outskirts of Glasgow to bring together most of the backroom support services for the police as well as other law enforcement and government agencies.
1. – Scottish Parliament, Justice Committee, (2018). Post-legislative scrutiny of the Police & Fire Reform Act 2012. Written submission by Police Scotland. Available at: https://archive2021.parliament.scot/S5_JusticeCommittee/Inquiries/PFR-PoliceScotland.pdf
2.- Financial Times, (March 25th 2019). “Police Scotland’s successes marred by governance failures, review finds”. Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/c3181e42-4efd-11e9-b401-8d9ef1626294
