The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Its worked well in Scotland though!

"not all counties or regions have the same policing priorities."

Care to enlarge on that?

Pete

DL. wrote:

Pete wrote:
not all counties or regions have the same policing priorities.

Care to enlarge on that?

Pete

clapclap

beat me to it

bradaz11 wrote:

DL. wrote:

Pete wrote:
not all counties or regions have the same policing priorities.

Care to enlarge on that?

Pete

clapclap

beat me to it

Happy to help!

Pete wrote:"not all counties or regions have the same policing priorities."

Care to enlarge on that?

Pete

Funny what the other two above did....

However,

Each of our forces are in the main, county based, as is firearm certification. One size fits all does not work with an awful lot of responsibilities. Norfolk, which has no motorways and little dual carriageways, does not need a significant traffic department. Northumbria, outside of Tyne & Wear is very sparsely populated so needs far more satellite stations and offices, than Kent, which has great road and rail communications and is serviced by "hubs" almost. There's no need for mountain rescue in Lincolnshire, but there certainly is in North Wales and the Highlands.

The Met deals with the population equivalent to some European countries and Devon and Cornwall actually have the largest number of privately owned firearms in the country, where as Cleveland has the least.

Even within the three national police forces we do have, local circumstances change massively for the officers that fill their ranks.

One for all is most definitely not the way forward....

I can't see how any of the issues you've mentioned warrant a separate county force with it's resulting (expensive) hierarchy.
It would make more sense, (and I suspect save a lot of money), to divide the country into zones consisting of three or four counties each, and each zone to have a representative on a national police committee which would handle policy, budgets etc. and most importantly, ensure that the law was applied in such a way that there was no postcode lottery.
The role of chief constable would still exist, but they'd be answerable to a higher authority instead of being the local top dog, and there would be fewer of them.
Departments such as traffic, ports, airports, nuclear, armed response, etc. could still function with the appropriately trained officers.

What's not to like? What have I missed?

Pete

dromia wrote:The sport is dying due to the lack of any meaningful and effective representation for legal gun owners at a national level, our lack of any effective national organisation means we are an easy meat victim.

Well said.

Pete wrote:I can't see how any of the issues you've mentioned warrant a separate county force with it's resulting (expensive) hierarchy.
It would make more sense, (and I suspect save a lot of money), to divide the country into zones consisting of three or four counties each, and each zone to have a representative on a national police committee which would handle policy, budgets etc. and most importantly, ensure that the law was applied in such a way that there was no postcode lottery.
The role of chief constable would still exist, but they'd be answerable to a higher authority instead of being the local top dog, and there would be fewer of them.
Departments such as traffic, ports, airports, nuclear, armed response, etc. could still function with the appropriately trained officers.

What's not to like? What have I missed?

Pete

All my illustration was for was to show the diversity of our county system. That's one of the beauty's of the UK, you don't have to go far to find a different accent, a different "culture" and a different scenery. All individual to that location.

Regionalisation has been touted for quite a while. Certain specifics, such as Counter Terrorism, have been regionalised and work quite well, but that does not necessarily work for all aspects of even the majority of policing.

As you suggest, take four counties. How about Kent, Essex, Sussex and Surrey, the South East corner. You could not bring them under one umbrella. They are so diverse in themselves and all have major priorities specific to them, it would be a constant bun fight. You might get rid of three Chiefs, but the will be replaced by the same animal bearing a different name. Continuity ACPO springs to mind...

And, the Chief is not top of the tree. He answers to the elected representative for the county, the Police and Crime Commissioner. His electorate are local and they are interested in local, issues.

And to think that regionalisation or even national will solve anomalies in licensing is seeing it the wrong way to my mind. More big government and less representation sees all manner of policies rammed through without recourse. 10 regions with ten representatives isn't a lot of Lee way when those 10 want to talk to the Home Secretary about restricting further. That's something to ponder...

A post code lottery it may be, and yes it could be a whole lot better. But it could also be a whole lot worse.

Any more news as to where we are up to in this? Wondering if I need to buy more 9mm bullets for reloading or if what I have already will last until they take my SGC Lever-release......