Essex ‘hard done by’ over HMIC backlog comments

ESSEX Police should feel hard done by following criticism by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary that the force has an “unacceptable backlog of unresolved open incidents”.

HMIC’s Police Efficiency report rated the force as good overall, but said it required improvement in managing its resources.

The report said the force must “ensure it has a sufficiently skilled and trained workforce to deal with the demand of protecting vulnerable people”.

It added: “The force should ensure it reduces the backlog of unresolved open incidents within the control room.”

The report said these incidents represented a “significant risk”.

However, Mark Smith, Chairman of Essex Police Federation, said such backlogs were an inevitable consequence to the cuts in police resources.

He said: “I think the force should be feeling fairly hard done by by that statement. There will be a backlog of incidents because we haven’t got the resources to deal with them.

“Demand is outstripping resources – that’s a consequence of the cuts.

“The public will have to live with that and the government will have to live with it. You can’t take millions of pounds out of police funding and expect it to stay the same.

“We’ve said from the start, you don’t get the same or more for less, and I’m afraid that the public are going to have to live with that.

“They voted the Tories back into power who said they were only halfway through their cuts. It’s only going to get worse. And lists will grow and people may not be seen – this is all part of it.”

HMIC did praise Essex Police for its collaboration with Kent Police and its “ambitious, far-reaching plans to improve services”.

The report said Essex had saved £13.9 million in 2014/15, and had plans to save a further £53.8 million by 2018/19. The force plans to lose another 446 officers in the same period, taking its total number of officers to 2,623 – down from 3,606 in 2010.