"Fewer forces means stronger policing" - UK's top police officer
Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley's made a speech calling for sweeping reforms to England and Wales' 43 forces
The head of the Met Police says resources are being wasted by having 43 separate police forces across England and Wales.
Sir Mark Rowley's given a speech in Manchester in which he's argued the case for having between 8 and 10 regional forces instead.
He says it would cost less and result in more expertise to combat increasingly sophisticated crime.
The Scotland Yard chief argued for constabularies across England and Wales to be combined into eight-to-10 regional forces
But police and crime commissioners and local leaders claim a restructuring will cost money and weaken ties between senior officers and their communities.
Long-term underinvestment
In his speech, Sir Mark addressed what was behind what he called the "fragility" of the policing system:
"Successive governments have allowed investment in policing to fall behind what the public needs.
"Over 15 years, police funding has fallen from around 0.9% of GDP to around 0.7%. That's a deficit of over 3 billion in today's money.
"And we have fewer police officers per head than France, Germany, East East, Spain, in fact most of Europe.
"We have invested more in vital priorities such as counter-terrorism and public protection, but that leaves less room elsewhere.
"And with 77% of expenditure committed to office and staff pay, the scope to invest in the tools, the technology, and the training we need is very narrow.
"Last year, forces used £276 million from reserves simply to balance their books and keep going for the next year. They borrowed more than £630 million to fund capital programs.
"And too little of what we spend is helping us change.
"Of the annual 2 billion policing spent on technology, 97% of it is simply maintaining legacy systems.
"That's the product of long-term underinvestment.
"This is maintaining the past.
"It's not building the future."
Cross-border policing
Sir Mark also addressed whether current policing systems were able to keep up with the advances in technology that criminals themselves have adapted to:
He said: "we can't keep asking people to meet new threats with aging systems and too little investment in their skills.
"The result isn't just fragile balance sheets.
"It's a police service unable to protect the public as well as we should and as well as we wish.
"Criminals have adapted to the 21st century.
"The question is whether policing can now reform and adapt quickly enough to keep pace.
"When crime affects a high street, a neighborhood, or a family in their own home, people reasonably ask, why can't the local police deal with it?
"But behind what looks like a local problem increasingly sits a criminal enterprise that operates across borders."