Public put at risk by cash cuts, claim police
Senior police officers are warning that more people will become victims of crime as a result of budget cuts
Lucy Adams - Herald Scotland -3rd February 2010
Senior police officers are warning that more people will become victims of crime as a result of budget cuts, as research shows forces have already been short-changed by local authorities.
Chiefs are predicting crime rates will rise and phone calls will go unanswered if the forecast cuts of 12% from 2011 onwards take place.
A report commissioned by the Scottish Police Federation (SPF) has revealed forces are already dealing with an overall loss of about £11 million from local authorities since the introduction of the SNP’s much-lauded concordat with Scotland’s councils in 2008.
It found the overall proportion of police funding from local authority budgets had dropped from 10% before the concordat to just 8.8% last year.
The deal signed between Finance Secretary John Swinney and local government association Cosla resulted in a modest increase in councils’ share of the budget, partly because of the additional £210m provided for a council tax freeze. However, it removed ring-fencing from areas such as policing.
Les Gray, chairman of the SPF, said: “There seems to be some sort of blissful ignorance at the minute that the cuts won’t really affect anyone. The reality is that there will be a drastic reduction in police numbers and that more people will become victims of crime as a result.
“Calls will go unanswered. The crime rate will rise unnecessarily. Detections will go down because there will not be the officers available. This is not scaremongering. It’s the reality. History has taught us that crime goes up in a recession anyway.
“It is a false economy, too. More crimes will lead to hikes in insurance and additional costs for the hospitals having to stitch people up. Taking a serious assault to trial costs £250,000. Taking a murder costs £1m. And that doesn’t even take account of the human cost to the victims.”
Most forces have admitted that staffing levels – whether back-office support staff or frontline officers – will be reduced, but the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (Acpos) is confident communities will not be affected.
Some of the forces and other emergency services are looking at sharing certain functions with other forces or services in order to make savings.
Patrick Shearer, president of Acpos, said: “Whilst we are expecting the budget for 2010/2011 to be maintained, we are preparing for budgets from 2011 through to 2014 to be reduced.
“There is no certainty at the moment as to the extent of the reduction. However, we are planning based on the assumption that real-terms reductions of around 12% are possible.
“Given the complexity of policing in modern times and with the majority of the policing budget spent on staff, there is no doubt that any reduction to the policing budget presents a considerable challenge for the Scottish police service.”
Officials discuss prospect of cutting one in five police officers
Tom Whitehead - Telegraph
Plans to cut one in five police officers will be discussed by senior policing officials today, a leaked document has disclosed.
The report, coauthored by a chief constable, raises the prospect of replacing 28,000 regular officers with civilian staff to save hundreds of millions of pounds.
It suggests that policing can be "at least as good" where forces have half their staff made up of civilians, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
The report has been co-written by Mark Rowley, the Chief Constable of Surrey Police, which has a 50-50 split and has seen officer numbers fall by almost 5 per cent in a year while civilian staff grew by 2 per cent.
But rank and file leaders last night warned such cuts would mean police would lose their ability to fully respond to all emergencies, while opposition MPs accused ministers of trying to cut numbers behind the scenes.
The report centres on a 10-year workforce plan and is being presented to the National Policing Improvement Agency, the Home Office-funded body responsible for finding efficiencies within the police service.
It will reignite concerns that senior officers and ministers are trying to police on the cheap, with more civilians, such as back room staff and community support officers, replacing regular officers.
Forces already face increasingly tight budgets and last week the Association of Chief Police Officers warned that senior staff will face "some tough choices in the near future".
The Home Office last night insisted the figures did not reflect government policy. However, staffing levels and deciding the mix of officer and civilian staff remains the responsibility of chief constables.
Figures last week showed police numbers have fallen in six out of 10 forces although the overall total for the country rose slightly by 583 officers to 144,833.
Today's discussion paper reads: "The current position is that within the 43 Home Office forces, broad workforce mix currently equates to 64.4 per cent officers and 35.6 per cent staff.
"As a result of a variety of approaches to modernisation, in the case of the most mixed forces there are over 50 per cent staff.
"If all forces were to mirror that position, increasing the mix of officers and staff, this would result in a more diverse workforce but with approximately 28,000 fewer officers and with savings in the region of £400 million.
"The experiences of some forces that have mixed their workforces suggests that policing would be at least as good."
In 2008, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, the then Chief Inspector of Constabulary, said having more than 141,000 officers across England and Wales is neither necessary nor financially 'sustainable'.
He said many of the tasks of the 'standing armies' could be handed to civilian staff instead.
Police chiefs are already looking at the possibility of other money saving ideas such as officers patrolling on their own, rather than in pairs, and the Home Office yesterday signalled that should be the norm.
Paul McKeever, chairman of the Police Federation, said of the latest report: "We are astounded that people are even thinking along these lines. It is going to change things so dramatically in the policeservice if that is going to happen.
"We are an emergency service that responds to peaks of work. If we lose 28,000 we are going to lose the flexibility and resilience that allows us to respond to emergencies that we are there to deal with. That is our core reason for existing.
"The fact that people are talking in this way is of great concern to us."
Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary, said: “This just shows how blatantly hypocritical this Government is. Labour Ministers are trying to claim they have protected police funding and overall police numbers but in reality behind the scenes they are preparing for cuts to the number of police officers. It’s utterly unacceptable for any Government to behave in such a dishonest way. We can’t go on like this.”
David Hanson, the policing minister, said: "The figure quoted is in no way a reflection of government policy. Next year's police investment will go up to more than £9.7bn and it is for chief constables to spend it where it is most needed to get the right size and mix of police workforce to ensure crime keeps dropping.
"Police officer numbers remain historically high and they are doing a great job — crime is down and public confidence is up. But it is not all about numbers, the force must carry on tackling crimes that matter most to the public and that is why the government has guaranteed funding to maintain front line strength until 2013.
"The increase in civilian staff is freeing up officers, allowing them to dedicate more time to protecting the public and keeping the country safe. Outcomes are what matter most. It is not record numbers in the workforce that by itself will deliver a better service for the public. It is what officers and staff do that is crucial.”
See also:
Stressed police take 300 years off
Revealed: How police forces spend £3m on tea and biscuits
Police 'whiter than ever' as one in 100 recruits from ethnic minority
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