Would it benefit the UK to have a national police force?

Whatever system ensures they aren't too powerful will do for me

http://www.formindep.org/IMG/jpg/le_gendarme_de_saint_tropez_1964_reference.jpg

After recently reading the Martin Beck series I am inclined to say no.

The major benefits of a national police force are things like the centralization of information resources and the ability to step in when the local cops are too small (or too compromised) to cope with a major crime.

The major drawback is the concentration of power, so that any corruption that is associated with that police force becomes harder to deal with, and the victims of that corruption are put at an even greater disadvantage in the scales of power. The most common sort of corruption is the politicization of the national police, so they become a weapon used by the government against the opposition.

My vote is no.

I vote yes, but they have to wear dayglo yellow uniforms

and their lorries play "yakety sax" instead of having sirens

Unlike many the UK many countries have a national police force.

There does not seem to be a reason for this over and above "this is the way things have always been done"

lil bit of html magic there

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/KeystoneKops.jpg

Scotland's laws are different from the rest of the UK's.

Coppers are still bastards there too though

Oh aye, just enforcing different laws. In a dastardly bastardly way.

we have a national police force. But we are a small country. They are a bit rubbish and a bit thuggish, like a lot of police forces, but they are not terrifying organisations like the Met.

actually, our own cops aren't all bad.

that one that posts on ILX seems ok

Coppers are still bastards there too though

― Duncan Disorderly (Tom D.), Thursday, August 11, 2011 6:40 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark

simple logic, really:

if "all cops are bastards"
then
"scottish cops are bastards"

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Soon this burning issue will be decided for good and all, and we can all breathe a sigh of relief.

not with a truncheon in yr diaphragm

True that. But it is my impression that IUDs are much less popular than they were in my parents' generation.

There's not really a need for one. There is a lot of co-operation between constabularies already. It's not like you can cross from one county to another and the cops stop at the border, as I understand happens (in films) in America. Also policing is most effective (imo) when it is local, something policing has been drifting away (although fairly recently it was drifting back again, but now seems to be drifting the other way, it's like quite a fluid situation).

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