The front line is “at breaking point”, meeting told

“PROPAGANDA and spin” from forces that the front line of policing is unaffected by cuts “must stop”, officers have been told at an Open Meeting.

John Apter, chairman of Hampshire Police Federation, (pictured) said “cuts to the policing budget are taking their toll”.

He told officers at the Fed’s Open Meeting the front line is “at breaking point, and in some places it has already broken.”

Mr Apter said: “The reality for officers on the frontline is continuously working at or below minimum safe levels, unable to take leave, unable to take time off, having their duties changed at a moment’s notice because there are simply not enough cops to go around. There is absolutely no slack in the system, we have no resilience.

“Sickness levels are going up, stress is going up…..I have been warning that with all of these cuts and change something had to give. We could not continue trying to do more and more with less and less.

“What is now clear is that the casualty in this is not crime figures, it’s not performance it’s the wellbeing of our officers and staff. Officers are breaking, we have reached a point where any further reductions to police officer numbers will make policing our streets impossible.”

Mr Apter, speaking at the meeting in October, told chief constable Andy Marsh and police and crime commissioner Simon Hayes at the meeting that officers were “frustrated with a lack of acknowledgement that morale was low.”

He said “the Force had its head well and truly stuck in the sand” when it came to officer morale.

Mr Apter added: “The cuts across the public sector are having an impact. The Ambulance Service can’t cope, the NHS is in crisis, the fire service are taking industrial action and things are not getting any better. It appears that during these tough times other areas of the public sector have the wonderful ability to stop doing things.

“The impact of dealing with Mental Health is a real issue for us. As we don’t shut up shop at 5pm, unlike our partners, it is our officers who are picking up the pieces and dealing with what are medical situations.

“The Ambulance Service are simply unable to attend all calls, so we agree to act as triage for them. I am sure it won’t be long before we start to carry fire extinguishers and little ladders so we can help out the fire service when they get stretched.”

Also at the open meeting at Hampshire Cricket Ground, attended by 300 officers, was Steve Williams, chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales.