Wednesday 20 May 2009

Police not merging

The East Anglian press are witnessing an interesting power play , two police forces - Norfolk and Suffolk both rural, geographically similar , and small in comparison to the rest of the UK Forces seem to be at war with each other . Norfolk want to merge with Suffolk, but Suffolk doesn't want to merge but to collaborate , press leaks imply that both are in discussion about it but don't want to scare the staff.

Why not merge them , well Suffolk police costs less to run than Norfolk's police so the local tax payer in Suffolk would have to pay more. Suffolk's crime stats are better than Norfolks . So obviousely Norfolk want to merge . There could be economonies of scale in having joint HR, estates, IT and civilian staff reductions , which would supposedly free up cash for more police on the streets .
But hang on what about the real cost of merging, new logos, new uniform, redundancy payouts, new stationery , new markings on vehicles and the elephant in the fridge is IT - they have totally different IT systems - that alone would cost millions.

Not to mention the bloodbath that could happen as senior management and the police authority end up fighting to keep their jobs .