Suffolk’s Police and Crime Commissioner has warned that rural communities could “lose out” if reported plans to merge England and Wales’ 43 police forces into a dozen regional mega-forces go ahead.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is said to be considering the largest shake-up of policing in decades, with proposals to pool technology, back-office services and specialist expertise to cut costs and improve consistency.

But Crime Commissioner Tim Passmore said he was “not aware of any specifics relating to Suffolk” and stressed the idea of nine or 12 mega-forces was still “a degree of speculation”.

However, he added that “no smoke without fire comes to mind with the Home Office”.

He warned that if several forces were combined, “remote rural areas in Suffolk would actually lose out”.

While

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