Wiltshire Police Force – will it still be as it is now in a decade?

Our Wiltshire Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) has predicted that by the mid-2030s Wiltshire Police will no longer exist as a local independent police force. He cited a pincer movement of police reform and devolution combining to bring about the demise of the country’s oldest county police force.

The PCC anticipates that the impending police reform bill will look to reduce from 43 police forces across England and Wales to perhaps somewhere between 12 and twenty regional forces.
While the PCC recognises the potential savings, he expresses concern that policing priorities should be driven by local residents rather than government policy.

I fully agree with the PCC however he neatly omits to mention that his own mandate is precariously limited.

The turnout in the most recent Wiltshire PCC election, held on 2 May 2024, was approximately 22.7 per cent of the electorate across Wiltshire and Swindon. A total of 125,927 verified votes were cast in that election.

Each year the PCC canvases residents as he prepares to present his bid to the Wiltshire Police Crime Panel for increases in the police precept, which is included within your Council Tax payments.

In the public consultation used to inform the Police and Crime Plan, covering the period up to 2025, close to 4,000 individual responses were received from members of the public, along with 462 responses from partner organisations and stakeholders.

With engagement levels consistently low, the bar has been set remarkably low when it comes to hearing the voices of local people.

The PCC also expresses anxiety that as result of devolution, Swindon might join up with Thames Valley, while Wiltshire links up with Somerset and Dorset. He is quoted as asking, “Will we be broken up into one part looking north and one looking south?”

I don’t have an immediate answer, but I know from personal experience that policing Swindon is very different to rural Wiltshire. Swindon forms part of the rapidly expanding M4 corridor, while the market towns in Wiltshire have a closer affinity with counties to the south and west.
The backdrop to the PCC’s prediction is discussion regarding where the police precept for 2025/26 should be set. The catalyst for police reform and devolution partly rests in public finance, or rather the lack of it.

The restructuring of policing is no silver bullet in tackling the problems that arise from funding. There will be a short-term cost but, as conceded by the PCC, longer term benefits.
The reality is that we have a Victorian model for delivering policing across England and Wales that is not fit for the 21st century. If this position is accepted, we can choose to act like King Canute in resisting the tides of change or join in the discussion to shape the future of local policing.

Our PCC, the Chief Constable and locally elected politicians have a vital role to play in protecting our interests as the future is shaped.