"What I'm trying to do is design a new model for policing"
Shabana Mahmood has announced plans for a new National Police Service (NPS) designed to tackle terrorism, fraud and organised crime across England and Wales.
Dubbed a “British FBI”, it is intended to reform policing rather than cut costs.
The Home Secretary said the National Police Service was “absolutely not” about saving money but about creating a new model for policing.
The new force will bring together the work of the National Crime Agency, regional organised crime units and other national policing functions under one organisation.
It will purchase shared technology, including facial recognition systems, to support local forces and improve national coordination.
Mahmood said the current policing structure was “broken” and confirmed the NPS will form part of a wider set of police reforms to be unveiled on January 26.
Recent reform proposals include significantly reducing the number of police forces in England and Wales from the current 43. Police chiefs were calling for the creation of 12 “mega” forces.
Every police officer in England and Wales will also be required to hold a licence to practise under the proposed changes.
Ministers will gain increased powers to intervene where police and fire chiefs are judged to be failing.
The National Police Service will cover England and Wales but will be able to operate across the wider UK, setting national standards and training frameworks.
It will be led by a national police commissioner, who will become the most senior police chief in the country.
The Home Office said local officers have been “burdened” with major crime investigations without adequate training, reducing their ability to respond to everyday offences such as shoplifting and anti-social behaviour.
Shabana Mahmood said there was an “epidemic of everyday crime” including phone theft and retail theft, which she said often goes “unpunished”.
She said: “What I’m trying to do is design a new model for policing in this country which means we can deal with all of that everyday crime, that it is punished, that communities can have confidence that those sorts of criminals will not be able to run amok and have a national police service which can go after international criminals and national criminals who don’t respect borders.”
Currently, several national policing responsibilities sit with local forces, including counter-terror policing by the Metropolitan Police, the National Air Service by West Yorkshire Police and National Roads Policing by Sussex Police.
These functions, along with the work of the National Crime Agency, would be transferred to the NPS under the proposed reforms.
The Home Office said intelligence and resources will be shared between forces in stages to ensure consistent levels of public protection regardless of location.
The idea of a “British FBI” is not new, with similar labels previously applied to the Serious and Organised Crime Agency in 2006 and the National Crime Agency after it replaced SOCA.
The Home Office also said it plans to recruit senior leaders from outside traditional policing to strengthen expertise at the top of the new organisation.
Although Mahmood said everyday crime is rising, she acknowledged that overall crime, including serious offences, has fallen.
The government says facial recognition technology has contributed to a reported 1,700 arrests in the past two years, though campaigners have raised concerns about bias and privacy.
Graeme Biggar, director general of the National Crime Agency, supported the reforms and said “the overall policing system is out of date. Crime has changed, technology has changed, and how we respond needs to change”.
He added: “These are threats that affect us all locally, but need a national and international response.”
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp warned the changes should not undermine frontline policing.
He said:
“More top-down reorganisation risks undermining efforts to catch criminals and it delivers no real improvement on the ground.”
Senior policing figures have expressed mixed views, with the Police Federation cautioning that “fewer forces doesn’t guarantee more or better policing for communities”.
The Association of Police and Crime Commissioners warned that creating regional forces could be expensive, time-consuming and risk distancing police from local communities.
In November, ministers announced plans to scrap police and crime commissioners in 2028, aiming to save at least £100 million to fund neighbourhood policing.
Shabana Mahmood is also seeking greater powers for home secretaries to dismiss police chiefs, arguing that accountability ultimately falls on the home secretary when failures occur.
She said she would have sacked former West Midlands Police chief Craig Guildford, who initially refused to resign following criticism of the force’s handling of a decision to ban Israeli football fans from a match.
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