POLICE cuts have left Essex more vulnerable to home-grown extremists and terrorist attacks, the force\u2019s Federation has warned.<\/p>\n
Unprecedented cuts have left the force with 700 fewer officers and unable to do the proactive, preventative work needed to keep people safe, Steve Taylor said.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cWe have been telling our MPs when we meet them that the link between strong local policing and communities up and down Essex is proven to bring forward intelligence, and it\u2019s that intelligence that\u2019s the lifeblood of counter-terrorism policing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe miss opportunities by not having a bigger, better presence in our local communities. You cannot get away from the fact that the best intelligence comes from the local level, sourced on the doorstep, and that\u2019s a gap that\u2019s been left by ever-shrinking neighbourhood policing teams. And it is risking our security.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cIn Essex we have had to make supremely difficult choice and with there being so few of us we have become limited to a response service, answering demand that is presented to us over the telephone, invariably, or online, and just responding all the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd all the while the proactive work that we get to do is shrinking. We can\u2019t do that vital work with the community that builds trust and gives people the confidence the information we need to combat extremism. The only answer is more money. There\u2019s no getting away from it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve\u2019s comments echo those of the Senior National Counter-Terrorism Co-Ordinator, Neil Basu, who said funding cuts for local policing is endangering national security.<\/p>\n
He told The Guardian newspaper that two decades of progress in neighbourhood policing were at risk and that withdrawing police on the ground would mean losing the relationships and trust that yield crucial intelligence.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we don\u2019t have those people we will become so divorced from the frontline, and the frontline of communities, that [it] will be a disaster for policing in this country,\u201d the Met officer said. Asked whether it would threaten national security, he added: \u201cYes, because where\u2019s the intelligence coming from?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
POLICE cuts have left Essex more vulnerable to home-grown extremists and terrorist attacks, the force\u2019s Federation has warned. Unprecedented cuts have left the force with 700 fewer officers and unable\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3831,"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\/3883"}],"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=3883"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3885,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3883\/revisions\/3885"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}