POLICE chiefs have to \u201ckeep the door open\u201d to compulsory severance even if they have no plans to use it, the Chief Constable of Hampshire Police told its Federation open meeting.<\/p>\n
Chief Constable Andy Marsh told officers that he didn\u2019t believe he would have to use compulsory severance in the force, but stopped short of saying he would vote against it at the National Police Chiefs\u2019 Council.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cI have no intention of using it but practicality means I have to keep the door open.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also said that with further cuts on the horizon \u2013 the Home Office has been asked to prepare for between 25% and 40% ahead of November\u2019s Compulsory Spending Review \u2013 he would need to \u201cchange the expectation of demand on frontline officers\u201d.<\/p>\n
He added the force \u201cwill need to be more ruthless how we deliver services\u201d, adding that in some situations, \u201cthe public will need to self-serve\u201d.<\/p>\n
Hampshire Federation Chairman John Apter also acknowledged that cuts meant the force needed to have \u201ctough conversations\u201d with the public about what it could do.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cWith demand at an all-time high, we must decide what it is we are no longer able to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith officer numbers at an all-time low, demand and pressure on policing increasing we need to have some tough conversations with the public and decide what we will deal with and what we can\u2019t. Our current position of trying to be all things to all people is unsustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n
PCC Simon Hayes emphasised that neighbourhood policing should be at the heart of everything the force did. However, he came in for criticism when he said this job should be done by PCSOs, with many officers saying that they were being used as first response units rather than their original purpose of community policing.<\/p>\n
Mr Apter said: \u201cThe public have confidence in policing but there has to be a balance. At the moment the balance is skewed, and rank and file officers are insulted by this. There is a real concern police officers will only be used for crisis policing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
POLICE chiefs have to \u201ckeep the door open\u201d to compulsory severance even if they have no plans to use it, the Chief Constable of Hampshire Police told its Federation open\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2399,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2398"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2398"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2401,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2398\/revisions\/2401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}