Policing in England and Wales has arrived at a defining moment. Against a backdrop of inexorable demand and constrained public finances, there is now widespread professional and policy-maker consensus that aspects of our policing system have become inefficient, outmoded and must finally be reformed.

On 2nd October 2025, with a keenly awaited policing White Paper being prepared by government, more than 200 senior leaders from across policing, industry, government and beyond, were brought together by Cityforum and The Police Foundation, to consider the challenge of Delivering Police Reform – Mission, People Technology.

We are grateful to our event partners Cityforum and to Accenture for supporting the event and production of this report.

This report summarises the day’s presentations and discussion, distilling key messages including:

• There is a pressing imperative for ambitious police reform, which can only be delivered by the co-ordinated efforts of government, policing and its enabling partners.
• Greater centralisation is necessary but not sufficient. As well as driving efficiencies, reform must enhance local policing delivery, while preserving core principles of policing by consent.
• Crucial system design decisions, including around governance and performance management, must also support innovation, rapid scaling and creative partnerships with industry.
• Technology offers massive potential to transform policing, and data should be recognised as a vital collective asset. Interconnectivity and national co-ordination will be critical to the reform process.
• Policing needs a workforce strategy that enables it recruit, retain and more fully professionalise its officers and staff, as well as a leadership culture that values expertise in areas such as data and digital.
• Government and policing need to make a collective public case for reform in a way that moves beyond the blunt rhetoric of ‘more police on the beat’.

Call to action: Rather than wait for top-down direction and legislation, policing’s independent parts need to work together and alongside industry partners, to drive bottom-up transformation now, in line with the direction of travel set by the Home Office and emerging National Centre of Policing.