CLAIMS that cuts to police numbers are not to blame for a rise in violent crime are \u2018preposterous\u2019 according to Essex Police Federation Chair, Steve Taylor.<\/p>\n
Home Secretary Amber Rudd MP recently said that there was \u2018no evidence\u2019 that cuts had led to an increase in murders and violence and blamed rising drug use instead. Steve says Rudd’s claims are \u2018disingenuous at best and preposterous at worst’.<\/p>\n
Essex Police has lost 749 officers since 2010.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe increase in violent crime comes as a result of us losing almost 750 officers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just can\u2019t ignore that \u2013 it\u2019s not the only factor of course, but to suggest it doesn\u2019t have an impact is ridiculous.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just violent crime either and while the issue is a complex one, the reduction in officers is one of the different facets behind it.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the biggest issues is the damage it\u2019s had on neighbourhood policing \u2013 that\u2019s the first line in our battle with terrorism and if we are not there picking up on what\u2019s being said in communities then we are missing a beat, missing an opportunity to detect terrorist activity and planning early on.<\/p>\n
Steve says that the then Home Secretary Theresa May should have listened to leading officers when she attended the PFEW Conference back in 2015, when GMP Inspector Damian O\u2019Reilly warned that there would be a \u2018price to pay\u2019 for the erosion of neighbourhood policing.<\/p>\n
\u201cRegrettably we are seeing the results now,\u201d added Steve.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd when people say additional officers are being deployed it\u2019s the same officers, they are just having to work harder and for longer hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe extra 150 officers we are about to receive has to be set against the 750 we\u2019ve lost.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s clearly wrong to say that cuts don\u2019t play a part in what\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmber Rudd needs to listen to us, to police professionals, what we are saying is based on fact and experience \u2013 don\u2019t disregard it for the sake of politics.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CLAIMS that cuts to police numbers are not to blame for a rise in violent crime are \u2018preposterous\u2019 according to Essex Police Federation Chair, Steve Taylor. Home Secretary Amber Rudd\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3520,"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\/4232"}],"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=4232"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4234,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4232\/revisions\/4234"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}