Policing is a ‘postcode lottery,’ Home Secretary warns

The Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has warned that policing across England and Wales is “a postcode lottery.”

Mahmood said the 43-police force structure is “irrational” she told a major policing conference in London as police are now no longer placing officers into neighbourhood policing.

Speaking at the National Police Chiefs’ Council and Association of Police and Crime Commissioners summit, the Home Secretary said, “The structure of our police forces is, if we are honest, irrational.”

We have loaded critical functions like the national police air service and vetting onto local forces, drawing attention away from neighbourhood policing.

“We have 43 forces tackling criminal gangs who cross borders, and the disparities in performance in forces across the country have grown far too wide, giving truth to the old saw that policing in this country is a postcode lottery.

Mahmood told delegates: “The public rightly expect that we police our streets.

“There is most certainly criminality online.

“Some things cannot be legally tweeted just as they cannot be legally said, but we should not be policing perfectly legal language in any individual’s tweets.”

Mahmood told delegates: “I believe the position of a Police and Crime Commissioner, unfortunately, has not worked.

“Without necessary investment in creating a public profile, too many voters were unaware of the existence of the position, or its occupant.”