"To go ahead with a full-blown reorganisation of the country's police forces at a time when the Home Office is in such a mess is incompetence," declares Mike Penning.

Mike Penning, MP for Hemel Hempstead, has led calls for a halt to the reorganisation of police forces to let the Home Office concentrate on reorganising itself.

Mike Penning, who has consistently opposed the merger of Hertfordshire Police with neighbouring forces in Bedfordshire and Essex, has co-sponsored an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons. The motion calls for ‘a halt in the planned reorganisation of the police to allow the Home Office to concentrate on reorganising itself’.

An angry Mike said:
“At a time when the Home Office is in complete disarray, it seems crazy to embark on a full-blown reorganisation of police forces around the country. It is a waste of time and money to create these so-called ‘strategic’ police forces which are not wanted by local people who clearly see it as against common sense. It is quite simply, a political decision which is an attempt by the Government to introduce regional government by the back door.

“Most crime that affects local people is local crime – antisocial behaviour, petty theft and vandalism. We don’t need a force stretching from Tring to Southend-on-Sea to deal with this. Decisions relating to local policing should be taken at a local level not by a large bureaucratic organisation covering such a large area.

“This will undoubtedly cost the taxpayers a lot of money as I’m sure these new ‘strategic’ forces will soon ‘need’ large new ‘strategic’ headquarter office blocks.”

“Its time the Government listened to the people. We don’t want regional government, we don’t want regional police forces. Local policing should be local.”