MAKING sure Warwickshire’s police force survives will be a ‘big challenge’, a police chief has warned.

Warwickshire police and crime commissioner Philip Seccombe has vowed to “fight tooth and nail” to keep the county’s police force independent, despite mounting pressure to merge with others.

Mr Seccombe described how the county’s force, the second smallest in England, is cash strapped. Some police chiefs in other parts of England have called for forces to merge, to save money and resources.

There is also uncertainty around the government’s plans to shake up and streamline local government by merging two-tier councils into one larger authority. This includes potentially ditching PCCs and replacing them with mayors in some areas.

Mr Seccombe told a Warwickshire Police and Crime Panel meeting: “I want to make sure that Warwickshire Police remains an identity.

“I do not want to be merged or taken over or anything else by anyone else. Now that will be interesting, depending on the local government reform. It will depend on devolution deals and all sorts of things out of my hands, but I will fight tooth and nail to keep Warwickshire focused on Warwickshire, addressing the concerns of our residents. That’s the big challenge coming up.”

He was asked whether a merger could be a positive, as it might create more money and resources.

But Mr Seccombe replied: “If there’s going to be any form of police governance, the smaller the area covered, the better.

“If we were merged with somebody like the West Midlands, we wouldn’t feature in a lot of what they do, so it’s in our interest to stay independent.”

He reminded the panel that Warwickshire already shares some services and functions such as forensics, training and university courses, with other forces.

Later, Mr Seccombe spoke of the “pain” following West Mercia’s decision in 2018 to extract itself from a six-year alliance with Warwickshire Police, which resulted in having to “rebuild the force from the bottom upwards”.

Emphasising the future is uncertain, due to the government’s devolution plans, he pointed out the home secretary might decide to mandate mergers of police forces, including Warwickshire.

But he added: “I won’t be encouraging him or her to do that.”

Police numbers

Warwickshire Police has a force of about 1,122 officers, an increase of 34% since Philip Seccombe took over as Police and Crime Commissioner in 2016.

He said he is told constantly by the public they want to see more police officers out and about, and revealed he would like 2,500 officers in Warwickshire but the money simply isn’t available.

He described the force’s finances as “very, very tight” and added his team would have to “look hard at the whole budget to see if we can make a make more savings, because the last thing we want to do is to make any cuts to services”.

He also pointed out large-scale recruitment has a downside, in that more than a third (36%) of Warwickshire Police officers have fewer than five years’ experience.

“That would never have happened in any police force in the past,” he pointed out.

Improvements needed

WARWICKSHIRE Police must improve how it responds to the public, it’s been told.

‘Serious concerns’ were raised about how quickly the force responds after 999 and 101 calls have been answered.

The PEEL (police effectiveness, efficiency, and legitimacy) report published in June, is an independent appraisal by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS), dubbed ‘the Ofsted of policing’.

It graded Warwickshire Police’s performance across eight areas and found the constabulary was ‘good’ in two, ‘adequate’ in two, ‘requires improvement’ in three, and ‘inadequate’ in one – responding to the public.

Responding to the criticism, Mr Seccombe told the Warwickshire Police and Crime panel: “It is disappointing that the force overall is graded as inadequate for public contact, with the main issues revolving around how quickly officers are taking to respond to calls for service, once they have been received.”

Mr Seccombe countered the PEEL judgement of the time taken to answer 999 and 101 calls, saying it’s easy to measure how quickly they're answered, but not as easy to measure the quality of the response.

He said he believed people would rather wait a little bit longer and have a quality response.

And he pointed out that more than 90% of 999 calls are now answered within 10 seconds.

Highlighting the challenges Warwickshire faces, as a small, standalone force, Mr Seccombe said: “Many of the issues highlighted come down to an overall lack of people to meet the increased demand or process investigations more quickly and effectively.

“While the report makes clear that the force manages its finances well, the level of resource needed to fully meet the challenge just isn't available.

“Warwickshire Police receives among the lowest amount of central government funding per head of population in the country, and similarly, ranks among the forces with the lowest numbers of officers compared to the population it serves.”