The Home Secretary has announced a major policing reform programme that will expand the use of artificial intelligence and live facial recognition across England and Wales, alongside structural changes that could reshape how forces are organised and held to account.
Shabana Mahmood said the government will invest £140m in new technology, arguing it will free up six million police hours a year – the equivalent of around 3,000 officers – by automating time-consuming tasks and speeding up investigations.
Ministers say the package amounts to the biggest set of changes to policing in roughly two centuries, with plans to create a new national crime-fighting body, reduce the number of local forces through mergers over time, and introduce new standards and accountability rules for officers and chief constables.
A technology push aimed at “analogue” policing
At the centre of the announcement is a bet that modern tools can make policing faster and more visible on the street. Mahmood argued that criminals now operate in increasingly sophisticated ways while parts of the policing system are still relying on outdated methods. In Parliament she said the current structures are “not fit for purpose”, and ministers say the aim is to cut administrative drag so more officer time is available for frontline work.
The Home Office claims AI tools will be used to help process and search large volumes of footage and digital material, including CCTV, doorbell video and mobile phone data, and to speed up work such as transcription and redaction. The Independent reported that ministers believe these changes will significantly reduce the manual burden on officers and staff, particularly in case-building and evidence handling.
Plans also include the creation of a national hub, branded Police.AI, intended to support rollout and standardisation across forces.
Live facial recognition to be expanded nationwide
The government also plans to scale up live facial recognition. Under the proposals, the number of live facial recognition vans is expected to increase from 10 to 50, with the intention that all forces can access the technology.
Supporters of facial recognition argue it can help find wanted suspects and missing people quickly, particularly in busy public spaces. Critics, including civil liberties groups and some policing oversight figures, have long raised concerns about privacy, accuracy, potential bias, and the need for strong safeguards and clear accountability when the state scans faces at scale.
The government says the expansion will sit alongside reforms designed to improve consistency across forces. The practical debate now is likely to focus on governance: who sets the rules, who audits outcomes, and what happens when the technology gets it wrong.
Live facial recognition is already used by some forces, but its expansion will revive the long-running debate about safeguards. Regulators have previously noted there is still no single, bespoke statute governing police use of live facial recognition, and a government consultation launched in December is aimed at shaping a clearer legal framework.
Professor William Webster, the Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner, said the consultation was a “unique and important opportunity” and highlighted the need for “meaningful oversight” that can keep pace with fast-moving technology.
A new “British FBI” and fewer forces over time
The White Paper sets out a plan to create an FBI-style National Police Service (NPS) focused on serious threats such as terrorism, fraud and serious organised crime. The government’s case is that today’s patchwork model leaves some forces too small to handle complex investigations, while criminals and online threats operate across borders and regions.
Alongside that, ministers propose reducing the number of local police forces in England and Wales, potentially through mergers from the current 43 forces to a smaller number of larger regional forces over the coming years. The government says the goal is fewer duplicated functions and faster national decision-making, especially on technology and specialist capabilities.
A key political sensitivity here is what bigger forces mean for local identity and visibility. Critics warn that “mega-forces” could feel remote, with resources pulled towards major urban centres. Supporters counter that stronger national capacity should mean local teams spend less time firefighting serious cross-border cases and more time dealing with the everyday crimes that shape public confidence.
Neighbourhood policing, standards and “licence to practise”
Ministers also say they want neighbourhood policing strengthened, with a commitment to teams in every council ward. The wider package includes proposals for higher professional standards, including the idea of a mandatory “licence to practise” for officers – something the government says would help drive consistency and accountability in a system it describes as outdated.
Another significant shift is the proposed increase in central powers. The reforms include expanding the Home Secretary’s ability to intervene in failing forces and remove chief constables. That is one of the proposals attracting the sharpest criticism, because it goes to the heart of the long-standing principle of operational independence.
Reaction: welcome from chiefs, warnings from oversight bodies and opposition
Police leaders gave the reforms a broadly positive initial reception, arguing that policing needs help modernising and that the current system involves too many separate decision-makers when trying to deploy new tools nationally. The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) published a response from its chair, Chief Constable Gavin Stephens, following the Home Secretary’s statement.
“This is the most significant change in policing in the last half a century,” and criticised the “postcode lottery of 43 police forces doing things 43 different ways” as “inefficient and ineffective”.
But the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) warned that concentrating power risks undermining local accountability and described the approach as constitutionally risky.
The Conservatives attacked the plans from a different angle, focusing on officer numbers and the risk that structural changes could weaken local service. In the Commons, shadow home secretary Chris Philp criticised the idea of large merged forces being distant from communities and argued the government was shifting officers between teams rather than improving overall capacity.
What happens next and when people might feel it
For the public, the reforms could be felt first in two places: faster digital investigations and more visible use of facial recognition in public spaces.
Supporters argue that quicker analysis of CCTV and phone evidence could reduce delays for victims and speed up charging decisions, while critics warn that expanding live scanning raises privacy concerns and demands transparent rules on watchlists, oversight and error rates.
In the shorter term, the most visible change for the public may be the expanded facial recognition capability and faster processing of digital evidence, if the promised technology procurement and training happens quickly and consistently. The hard part, and the part that will decide whether the package restores confidence, is whether the tools reduce delays without creating new controversies around privacy, accuracy, and accountability.
The political argument is now set: ministers say modern tech and a simplified structure will help rebuild a system they describe as “broken”, while critics fear a centralising reform that could weaken local democratic oversight and widen the gap between policing and the communities it serves.
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