'Out of date' policing system needs 'overdue' shake up, Met Police commissioner says

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has called for a dramatic overhaul of the policing system as he said the current model is "so out of date".

Speaking on Sky News' Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Sir Mark said he believed there should be a reduction in the 43 police forces across England and Wales as a shake-up of the system is "overdue".

"The current policing model is a tweaked and bastardised version of what was designed in a 1962 royal commission.

"It is so out of date for the challenges today. A unique thing about where we are today, police leaders across the system were all of a common mindset that the system needs to change quite dramatically.

"So you might say we're prepared to be the turkeys who vote for Christmas in terms of fewer police forces.

"People will immediately say 'this is going to damage local policing' - quite the opposite.

"If you've got an overly bureaucratic, complicated, convoluted sort of spaghetti system, all of that complexity sucks resources away from the locals.

"If we sort out all the national arrangements, our ability to counter national and international threats improves.

"We're never going to get the money that we would ideally need. The way we can succeed for the public is going to come through big investment in technology and technology-led reform.

"All of that is much easier to do on a better structure than this 43 forces plus a whole scattering of odd national bodies.

"That would be pretty dramatic root and branch reform... that's exactly what I'm arguing for. And it's difficult, it won't be a straightforward path, but it is overdue."

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Sir Mark's appeal for reform comes almost a week after figures from the Metropolitan Police showed London has recorded the lowest number of homicides in more than a decade.

The force said there were 97 killings in the capital last year - a fall of 11% compared to 2024's figure of 109.

The 2025 number is the lowest recorded since 2014 when there were 95 homicides.

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