Three East Midlands police forces have rejected outsourcing their control rooms management to security giant G4S after being approached by the latter.

In November, the forces announced that G4S had been asked to carry out a study on the feasibility of contact management; however, Leicestershire Police, Northamptonshire Police and Nottinghamshire Police abandoned talks with G4S early this week after having agreed amongst themselves to form a “strategic alliance” and coordinate their work instead.

Leicestershire Police and Crime Commissioner Sir Clive Loader proclaimed that the three forces “would prefer to be the masters of our own destiny."

The three forces firmly deny that the alliance is a merger. In a joint statement, the forces state that, "It is all about protecting the quality of local policing services in each force area as a result of maximising efficiencies ... and each force will retain its own identity."

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