Met Police’s Sir Mark Rowley is proposing eight to 10 regional police forces - supported by hundreds of local policing commands and a new national force

South Yorkshire would be policed by a “super force” based in Leeds if a Met brainwave comes to pass, says a police officer representative.

Steve Kent, chairman of the South Yorkshire Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, made the comment while speaking out against Met Police’s Sir Mark Rowley’s calls to cut the number of forces in the country to adapt to modern crime.

Sir Mark is proposing eight to 10 regional police forces, supported by hundreds of local policing commands and a new national force, in what would be the biggest overhaul of policing since the 1960s.

While supporting the need for “reform”, Mr Kent said he couldn’t “agree with the nonsense that making super forces is the answer to this”.

placeholder image — Steve Kent | S70 Media

He said: “The way to deal with this is for fair funding and resourcing to be done across the country and not merging forces.

“When this has been attempted in the past it has usually ended in disaster. The people of South Yorkshire should be consulted on this and asked whether they want to be policed by a super force which would be likely centralised in Leeds?

"South Yorkshire Police and its officers and staff perform remarkably well considering we have some of the lowest officers numbers and one of the smallest budgets per officer in England and Wales.

“Imagine what we could do the force was funded and staffed properly."

Under the present system there are 43-forces in England and Wales with three tiers of policing - local teams dealing with neighbourhood issues, regional forces sharing specialist resources and a National Police Service for most serious crimes.

Police officers launched a major investigation after a 16 year old was shot on London Road. Photo: Dean Atkins S70 Media | National World

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Police officers on patrol in Sheffield city centre

“There is a need for police reform," said Mr Kent.

"The system is broken, funding and policing numbers are at a crisis level with the result being that we are on the cusp of a mental health epidemic within policing.

"I mean no disrespect to the hard working officers in the Met at all, however I find it staggering that the commissioner is trying to dictate how other forces are structured and run.

"A lot of these smaller forces perform to a higher standard than the Met.”