大象传媒

A comprehensive analysis by 大象传媒 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: 鈥楾he position we鈥檙e in is we鈥檙e facing a six million pound budget shortfall by the time we get to 2019/20 which would mean we鈥檇 have to bring in a recruitment freeze and work towards a reduction of probably 120 officers around 2017/18.鈥�
鈥業t鈥檚 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鈥檝e responded to are related to crime anyway鈥� there鈥檚 a lot more work that people expect police officers to do now.鈥�

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