Eamon Keating, Chairman of the Defence Police Federation, looks at Tory manifesto plans for an “infrastructure police.”
The Conservative Party has included in its manifesto plans to merge the Ministry of Defence Police, the Civil Nuclear Constabulary and the British Transport Police into an ‘infrastructure police’ should it be elected.
Talk of changes, mergers and an ‘infrastructure police’ are going to create anxiety for the people who we protect and importantly the people who we represent as a Federation.
But this is just a proposal – a lot of things need to happen, including the result of a democratic election, before this is even considered, and we watch with interest to see how this moves forward and we will engage immediately if, as, and when this proposed project starts to gather pace after the election in June.
This idea began more than a year ago and then we entered into discussions with the Home Office, alongside our colleagues in the Civil Nuclear Police Federation and the British Transport Police Federation.
But due to Brexit it obviously became delayed – and then more recently the General Election has been called.
As things stand, we’re not against this and we are not for it.
If the Conservative Party are re-elected and this comes to pass, we would need to see the detail so we can understand what the implications are, for the departments and inner security, security of the personnel and the assets that we protect, and then also for the wider policing family and of course and importantly for our members.
What I can say is that if this materialises, I would hope that during this process we would get very full and detailed consultation to work through on our member’s behalf, in fact I would insist on it.
When this was previously mooted, I wrote to the Home Office in a tripartite letter from the three Federations concerned. We have a good working relationship with them and I would look to approach the Federations and do the same again, to reopen the doors and to start consultation with the Home Office around this immediately.
A merger across the board might look very simple on the face of it but the details and the complications in the background are immense.
Let’s wait and see what happens in the election first.
Eamon Keating
National Chairman
