The Guardian view on reforming the police: Labour's sprawling plan comes with risks attached | Editorial

"The police, said the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, in the House of Commons on Monday, is the last great unreformed public service. Her white paper aims to redraw the policing map of England (though policing is devolved, the other nations will feel the effects). If she succeeds, the current patchwork will be replaced by a multi-tier system. The 43 existing police forces, most serving a single county, will be abolished and replaced with a smaller number of bigger organisations."

"Above all this will sit a new National Police Service likened to a British FBI that will take over responsibility for counter-terrorism from London's Metropolitan police, and for serious and organised crime from the National Crime Agency set up under David Cameron. It will also take over major fraud investigations, as well as functions of the National Police Chiefs' Council and the College of Policing."

"Ministers know that while some violent crime has fallen with London's murder rate at a decade low shoplifting and phone thefts are driving a public sense that crime is rising, a feeling exploited by the Tories and Reform UK. With this in mind, new local police areas will have to keep bobbies on the beat busy and visible. Police and crime commissioners will be scrapped and replaced by local boards. Policing by consent must remain central."

Proposals would redraw England's policing map, replacing 43 mostly county forces with a smaller number of larger organisations in a multi-tier system. A new National Police Service, likened to a British FBI, would take responsibility for counter-terrorism, serious and organised crime, major fraud investigations and functions now held by national policing bodies, unifying training, standards and leadership. The new leader would become the country's most senior officer. Local policing will be required to keep officers visible as public concern about shoplifting and phone thefts persists. Police and crime commissioners would be replaced by local boards. The plan is ambitious, incomplete and will need cross-party support.

Read at www.theguardian.com