Hazel Blears MP
Minister of State
Home Office
50 Queen Anne’s Gate

Dear Minister

Police Force Reorganisation

I have, on more than one occasion, discussed the proposed reorganisation of the Wiltshire Constabulary by the Chief Constable of Staffordshire with my own Chief Constable, with the Chairman of the Wiltshire Police Authority and with my Divisional Police Chief Superintendent.

While it is true that we have all known for some time that the Home Office had police reform in its sights, none of us could have guessed that you would be rushing through the whole process so fast there cannot possibly be meaningful consultation or dialogue with the communities affected and the professionals who run our Police Service.    Given that the whole basis of policing in the UK is policing by consent, I would have hoped that any Government would have realised such dramatic changes would have to be with the consent of the whole community.

I agree that there is a case for change.  Certainly judged against the criteria for the effective delivery of modern policing, Wiltshire Constabulary needs reform and reinforcement in several specific areas.  I think my constituents would have been prepared to consider amalgamation with a neighbouring Constabulary such as Dorset.  However, to suggest that we should be lumped into one massive regional Police Force is quite unacceptable.  I have discussed this widely and I have not met one single person who shares that view.

I raised with my Chief Constable and the Chairman of the Police Authority the whole question of our relation with other Police Forces operating in my constituency.  I was disconcerted to discover that there had been no consideration by the Chief Constable of Staffordshire of the role of an interface with the Ministry of Defence, the Royal Military Police, the Civil Nuclear Constabulary, British Transport Police and other Military Guard

Forces all of whom interface with the work of the Wiltshire Constabulary and in some of our communities (especially the garrison towns) play a welcome and crucial role in community policing.   I believe that right across the UK, the fact that other Police Forces have been completely disregarded undermines the integrity of the entire reform programme.  In the case of Wiltshire Constabulary, I believe that in those areas where Wiltshire Constabulary has been identified as being suboptimal, the role of non-Home Office Forces changes the balance of the argument very significantly. 

Whatever changes you decide to impose upon us, may I say, on behalf of my constituents, that I believe it is of paramount importance that community policing at the beat level should remain the bedrock of the work of our police service in the United Kingdom.

Yours sincerely