Editorial: PSNI facing same challenges as other UK forces amid calls for urgent reform

​Calls for a fundamental reorganisation of how policing operates in a rapidly changing world highlight the scale of the challenges facing policing, and the PSNI is no exception.

​Twenty five years on from the creation of the force which replaced the Royal Ulster Constabulary, Northern Ireland is unrecognisable.

Crime is no longer a localised issue plaguing local communities at the hands of local thugs and criminals, it is international and sophisticated.

Victims of life-changing crime are often not physically harmed – but have their lives ruined by online criminality, often perpetrated by criminals on the other side of the world.

The United Kingdom's police forces were formed and structured in a different world, and to deal with entirely different circumstances. That is why Sir Mark Rowley, the head of the Metropolitan Police, is warning that law enforcement in England and Wales is heading towards failure if it is not urgently reformed.

He wants a total restructure, with local teams dealing with neighbourhood issues, regional forces sharing specialist resources and a National Police Service tackling the most serious crime.

Such monumental reforms would be the biggest since the 1960s – and would raise questions about how the PSNI fits into that model. Given the challenges, it seems inconceivable that our Police Service and Police Scotland could sit outside that structure.

Policing in Northern Ireland is, of course, highly political and there will be attempts to keep it separate. However, the operation of the National Crime Agency and MI5 in the province, working alongside the PSNI, provide a precedent.

The reforms in England and Wales appear necessary and urgent, and there needs to be thought now as to how the PSNI fits into that changing landscape nationally.