“No more empty promises on police cuts”

THE Government can show it is taking seriously the effect of cuts on policing with actions rather than empty words, Essex Police Federation has said.

Police Minister Nick Hurd told the Superintendents’ Association conference this month that the Government is listening to concerns from the police service about the effect of cuts. But Chairman Steve Taylor said he is not convinced that Mr Hurd’s sentiment will be backed up by action.

“There’s a difference between listening and hearing,” he said. “Because whilst it’s all well and good getting a finger on the pulse and saying you are listening, you’re not doing anything about it.

“You’re not showing us the value in how you pay us, you’re not showing us the value in how you finance the number of officer that we have to face demand, and you’re not showing us any value in a meaningful conversation around what it is and what it isn’t the police are going to be expected to do.

“For me, Mr Hurd’s comments are just cheap political comments which, like the pay award, have no substance behind them to back them up.”

Chief Officers are now starting to highlight the consequences of cuts to police budgets, with NPCC Chair Sara Thornton saying that “resources have got to be part of the conversation” with the Government. There are now 123,142 police officers in England and Wales – 20,592 fewer than in 2010.Essex Police now has 2,819 officers – down 787 since 2010.

Steve added: “We have consistently been trying to highlight the consequences that cuts have, and it’s taken this long for there to start to be national traction amongst the Chiefs. It’s quite simple isn’t it? There are too few of us, trying to do too much.

“And the weak link in that chain at the moment are the individuals, the officers, our members. They’re the ones that are falling over with stress, psychological related instances, which I have no doubt are partially connected to the level of demand that they are trying to deal with in their day to day.

“So whilst it’s encouraging that Chief Officers are starting to have those conversations, we’ve heard this before from Chiefs. And if you’re not going to reduce the demand, if you’re not going to restrict what we expect our officers to be dealing with, then we need more officers to meet that demand. It’s simple. We’ve cut too deep, and we’re struggling.

“So for Chief Officers up and down the country to be coming to this realisation, to be coming out and speaking about it in public, we have to welcome.

“And we have to resist the temptation to say, ‘we told you so’, because that’s been our mantra for years now, since austerity first started to bite. Why has it taken them so long to catch up with what the rest of us have found for some time?”