My statement on proposed police reform

The proposal to merge the existing 43 locally based police forces into large, regional forces goes against everything local people tell me they want.  

I am not against change. I support any reform that strengthens national capabilities and specialist expertise – the proposal for a National Policing Service is a sensible one where specialist collaboration can both modernise and strengthen our response against criminals.  

But merging local forces into so-called ‘super’ forces is not the answer. This will bring nothing but chaos and disruption and will take years to organise.  

We have worked hard to build trust and confidence within our local communities. To now dismantle those hard-won and well-established relationships with residents would be a serious mistake, weakening the local connections on which effective community policing depends. 

Far from improving local services such as neighbourhood policing, this will result in even more remote delivery.  

Cambridgeshire is a predominantly rural county. Bigger does not automatically mean better. Creating larger forces centred around urban areas risks slower response times, weaker local policing and a poorer service for our communities. Local knowledge will be lost, established partnerships disrupted, and the public will ultimately pay the price. 

Worse still, police officers and staff will be diverted from frontline priorities to work on business cases and implementation plans for an uncosted and unfunded reorganisation. Their time should be spent protecting communities and catching criminals, not redesigning police structures. 

Policing in this country is grounded in the principle of 'policing by consent'.  For policing to be effective, there must be broad public support. I have seen nothing to reassure me that the public have been consulted on these decisions.