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Police set to face further cuts

Police set to face further cuts

A comprehensive analysis by Â鶹ԼÅÄ News suggests that every police force across England and Wales is preparing for major budget cuts over the next five years. The research shows that some constabularies are planning to work more closely together to cut costs and others are proposing additional cuts in officer numbers. In three-quarters of police force areas the portion of the council tax that goes towards policing is being increased to help offset the funding reductions from central Government.

Olly Martins is Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner and he told Today: ‘The position we’re in is we’re facing a six million pound budget shortfall by the time we get to 2019/20 which would mean we’d have to bring in a recruitment freeze and work towards a reduction of probably 120 officers around 2017/18.’
‘It’s a bit of a mistake just to focus on the level of recorded crime because in terms of the work our response officers do only about 30% of the calls they’ve responded to are related to crime anyway… there’s a lot more work that people expect police officers to do now.’

Chris Sims is Chief Constable of West Midlands Police and he told Today:
‘There are really significant challenges around safeguarding and coping with new pervasive technologies…the demands have changed, there’s been a decisive shift from street-based crime to the more complex private based safeguarding issues such as sexual abuse and domestic abuse’
“If the first phase of austerity was about becoming more efficient, which I think forces have done brilliantly, the second phase…must be about wholesale transformation of how policing operates.â€

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