Modern crime transcends place and space. From burglary to fraud, crime increasingly crosses local, national and digital borders. England and Wales’ geographically restricted police forces are not well equipped to respond.

This is why the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has announced a significant restructuring of the policing system. The proposals include establishing a National Police Service and merging existing local forces areas into larger regional ones.

Currently, England and Wales have 43 local police forces. Each has different organisational structures and levels of expertise in specific areas of crime. Police intelligence databases and digital capabilities vary, which can silo local forces and result in blind spots.

Most of the country’s specialist policing resources are situated in London’s Metropolitan police and the National Crime Agency. This uneven distribution of resources leaves local forces reliant on each other as specialist needs arise.

Even crime we think of as “local” can exploit force boundaries. Burglars and car thieves may cross local force borders to avoid multiple crimes being linked by police. This problem is more evident in serious crimes like weapons or drug trafficking and modern slavery. Organised crime groups move products and people around the country, and often across international borders.

Much modern crime is also placeless or transnational. Technology-enabled crime, phishing and other scams, and image-based abuse can involve victims and perpetrators in multiple locations, both in the UK and abroad. Fraud is currently the most prevalent crime affecting people in the UK.

The problem for British policing is therefore not simply a question of efficiency, but one of fit. The current structure of policing does not match the structure of crime.

The government’s proposals will centralise existing specialist policing capabilities into a single organisation, better equipped to respond to cross-border crime. This, the home secretary argues, will reduce intelligence blind spots, allow police to share data nationally, and save money.

A National Police Service will also provide stronger leadership and accountability. The NPS will be headed by a chief constable who will be Britain’s most senior officer. The proposals have been welcomed by current police leadership organisations including the National Police Chiefs’ Council, the College of Policing and the independent Police Foundation.

A national approach

To understand the benefits of this approach, we can look at another area where the UK has already nationalised its efforts – extradition policing.

A National Extradition Unit was established ahead of Brexit to bring frontline extradition policing into one team. Before this, responsibility was dispersed across all local forces, with the National Crime Agency coordinating and linking UK policing to partners overseas.

The UK receives more extradition requests – to send criminals to other countries – than it issues. The bulk of extradition work involves tracking down fugitives wanted by foreign states, bringing them before the courts and arranging for their removal from the UK. Although larger forces sometimes had dedicated teams, for many local forces this work competed with other duties and force priorities.

Crime is crossing international and digital borders every day. Pungu x/Shutterstock

If a fugitive could not be located in one local area, the warrant would be returned to the NCA to reallocate the case to another force, wasting time and money. Once a fugitive was arrested, local forces would need to transport them to London, where extradition courts are located.

Once extradition was agreed by the court, these forces would have to travel again to meet international police officers at airports (often in London) to hand the individual over into foreign custody. All of this cost significant officer time and resources, often at very short notice.

The National Extradition Unit now sits within the newly formed Joint International Crime Centre, which offers a one-stop-shop service to UK policing and international partners.

This centralisation has reduced inefficiency and strengthened international partnerships, which is crucial in the face of growing transnational crime. There is also potential to centralise more international capabilities, such as criminal evidence exchange.

The formation of a National Police Service aims to replicate these benefits across policing: driving down costs and inefficiency, increasing effectiveness and improving governance. If delivered, it should improve the UK response to national and international cross-border crime.

Unresolved issues

Reform of British policing is long overdue – the last structural reforms were in 1964. But the movement to a national structure naturally raises questions about the future of neighbourhood policing. The number of community support officers has fallen 40% since 2010, and the public is disappointed with police responses to crimes like shoplifting, which predominantly affect local areas.

There is also the question of the relationship between the national and regional levels, which is not clearly spelt out in the proposals. Another unresolved issue is the status of the National Crime Agency – currently the UK’s national law enforcement agency that investigates serious and organised crime – as it is absorbed into a future National Police Service.

Of more concern are proposals to expand the home secretary’s powers to dismiss chief constables and to set centralised performance targets. This centralisation of power into government potentially threatens operational independence, a foundational principle of British policing.

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• ** Read more: Why the home secretary can’t fire a police chief who has done wrong – it’s key to the integrity of British policing ** *

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The imposition of performance targets under previous governments has tended to focus police on what is measured, not always on what matters most: maintaining public trust while effectively responding to serious crime. It is important that the implementation of these reforms guards against unintended consequences that undermine those capabilities.

A centralised system could better equip police to deal with modern, borderless crime. Yet this must be balanced against the need for local accountability and operational independence.

The success of a National Police Service will depend on how it is designed and governed. As the proposals move through consultation and scrutiny, the challenge for the government will be to modernise policing without undermining the principle of public trust on which it ultimately depends.