1. Police force merger survey - introduction from Police and Crime Commissioner Lisa Townsend

In January this year, the Government announced they were planning to merge a number of our police forces in the biggest shakeup of policing in the UK for a generation.

The Government intends to scrap the current 43 force system in England and Wales and create larger regional forces in their place.

It will likely mean Surrey Police will disappear and be merged with neighbouring forces in Sussex, Thames Valley, Kent and Hampshire to form a regional ‘mega force’ in the south east.

I make no bones about it - I believe Surrey residents deserve better than this. We are the safest county in the south east with no city and much lower crime rates than our neighbours.

My fear is that resources would be pulled away from our communities to support higher crime areas leaving Surrey with a second-rate service.

This is my opinion however and I know it may not be shared by everyone. But this is why I need your help. Although an independent review is being carried out to advise the Government on how to take the plans forward, the public are not being consulted meaning it’s unclear whether there is wider support or not for the merger plans.

This is really important and I want to ensure the people of Surrey have a voice. That is why I am launching this survey and asking everyone to fill it in and let me know what you think.

Police reform is absolutely necessary and of course we must continue to modernise. We face increasingly difficult threats from cyber and orgnaised crime and we want to work with the Government to create better ways to tackle issues nationally.

In my opinion, the creation of regional forces would not only be expensive and complex to deliver, but here in Surrey would result in the dilution of both the service our residents rightly expect and local accountability – particularly in light of the abolition of directly elected PCCs.

I’m a firm believer that local policing needs to be left to local police forces to deliver. At a time when we need to rebuild public confidence in policing, my view is these merger plans will only distance our policing teams from the communities they serve.

For further information about the proposals, you can read the Government’s white paper ‘From local to national: a new model for policing’ here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/from-local-to-national-a-new-model-for-policing

Please do take a few minutes to answer the questions below and have your say on the future of policing in Surrey.

Thank you

Lisa Townsend

Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey

 

1. Q.1    Do you believe that Surrey Police should be merged with other forces to create a larger regional Force?  

 

2. Before taking part in this survey, were you aware that the Government has proposed merging police forces across England and Wales? 

 

3. What do you think is the main benefit of merging police forces? (Select one)

 

4. What do you think is the main risk of merging police forces? (Select one)

 

5. Please add any other comments you may have about police force mergers here:

 

6. In which Borough or District do you live in?           

 

7. Where did you hear about this survey? 

 

8.  If you are interested in hearing from me as your Police and Crime Commissioner, and you are not already on our newsletter mailing list, please provide your email address to be added for future updates.