The new head of the policing inspectorate will be Andy Cooke, the former chief constable of Merseyside, the Guardian understands.
Cooke is said to have impressed in interviews for the post of Her Majesty’s chief inspector of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) by pledging to get forces better focused on detecting more crime and locking up more criminals.
It is a position that impressed the home secretary, Priti Patel, although delivering on it will be trickier than promising it, some police leaders believe.
Cooke’s appointment marks a return to having a former chief constable leading the inspectorate. The outgoing chief inspector, Tom Winsor, was the first civilian to lead the policing standards body. He was a lawyer and former rail regulator whose appointment nine years ago was controversial.
At that time the Conservatives were fighting the police over reforms and cuts. Now the government wants policing onside.
Policing faces twin crises of confidence. The first is on public trust, with continued controversies around race and the protection of women, which particularly affects the Metropolitan police, Britain’s biggest force.
The second is to do with falling rates of catching criminals and coping with burgeoning demand, which affects forces such as Greater Manchester, the third biggest in England.
Cooke saw off competition from, among others, Shaun Sawyer, the chief constable of Devon and Cornwall police, and Sir David Thompson, the West Midlands chief constable.
HMICFRS’s role is to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of police and fire services in England and Wales and to suggest improvements. It is supposed to be independent of the government and police.
Cooke will have a confirmation hearing next Wednesday before MPs on the home affairs committee.
The three biggest jobs in policing have recently been up for grabs. An announcement is imminent for the director general of the National Crime Agency, with Bernard Hogan-Howe among the final candidates. He, like Cooke, is a former chief constable of Merseyside, and he then went on to be the commissioner of the Met.
Also on the shortlist for the NCA job is the former counter-terrorism chief Neil Basu, whose selection would be a landmark as he would be the first ethnic minority Briton to hold one of the biggest jobs in the criminal justice system.
The other final candidates are Graham Biggar, the interim head of the NCA, Paul Lincoln, a former senior civil servant who was head of Border Force, and Dominic Wilson, the head of security policy at the Ministry of Defence.
The Met commissioner’s job is also soon to be advertised, with Cressida Dick still locked in wrangling with the London mayor over the date and terms of her departure after her resignation a month ago. Government sources say the wrangling is delaying formally starting the process of finding the next commissioner.
One possible candidate who is considering applying is Dame Lynne Owens, the former head of the NCA, who stepped down last year because of her health. She is thought to have made a better than expected recovery.
In a Guardian interview last year, Cooke identified poverty as a key driver of crime. “The best crime prevention is increased opportunity and reduced poverty. That’s the best way to reduce crime. So there needs to be substantial funding into the infrastructure of our inner cities and our more deprived areas,’” he said.
“Why do people get involved in crime and serious crime? It’s because the opportunities to make money elsewhere aren’t there for them. We need to reduce that deprivation and the scale of deprivation that we see in some of our communities, because if you give people a viable alternative, not all but a lot will take it.”
