Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner Alison Hernandez is seeking views on government white paper proposals to reform policing in England and Wales.
The white paper, which was published in January, sets out plans to create a new national police service and merge 42 existing police forces, including Devon & Cornwall Police, into as few as ten much larger “super-forces”.
This would mean a new combined force covering the areas currently policed by the Devon & Cornwall, Avon & Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire forces, which would then oversee much smaller newly-defined local policing areas covering “local towns, cities and boroughs”.
South West region police force areas. Source: HMICFRS.
The white paper followed a November government announcement that the role of police and crime commissioner will be abolished across the country when incumbents’ terms of office end in May 2028.
A month later, pre-empting the government white paper, Alison Hernandez launched a year-long survey asking Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly residents how they want their force police to be “held to account in the future”.
Her office said the survey was being undertaken in the context of prospective policing reform and police and crime commissioner abolition.
Then, less than six weeks after its launch and three days before the government white paper was published, her office said that two-thirds of the 1,533 responses submitted in the survey’s first month supported Devon & Cornwall Police continuing in its current form.
Having resigned from the Conservative party in the early new year, she then said that a government funding shortfall had left her with “no choice” but to propose increasing the Devon & Cornwall Police council tax precept by 5.2% – the maximum permitted.
Devon & Cornwall Police currently serves 1.8 million residents across a geographical area of 4,000 square miles.
Alison Hernandez said, in her submission to a Home Office review of police force structures which followed the white paper, that combining police forces across the south west region would result in a force serving over 5 million residents with boundaries spanning 250 miles.
She also said that the Chief Constable of such a force would not be able to maintain the “required strategic grip” over such a large area, leading to a “postcode lottery in policing services”.
The police and crime commissioner’s survey on the government’s police reform proposals is open until 12 July.
