Public face “extreme danger” if police cuts continue

A NEW round of public spending cuts will mean a loss of at least 34,000 police jobs within three years, chief officers have predicted.

Sir Hugh Orde, president of ACPO, has warned that further 20 per cent cuts from the Home Office would inflict even more damage on frontline policing than has been seen since 2010. ACPO estimates 34,000 out of 205,000 police jobs will disappear over the next three years.

Sir Hugh has warned of serious repercussions for the role of police in safeguarding society’s most vulnerable people.

ACPO’s predictions are based on a grant reduction recommendation by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC).

However, senior Home Office officials have reportedly revealed that the police should expect a deeper 25 per cent cut in government funding after the next general election.

The number of police officers has already fallen by 16,000, from 141,600 in 2010 to 125,400 in March this year.

The service is expected to have lost a total of 34,000 officers and staff by March next year – with the same number of job losses predicted for the next round of cuts.

Neil Bowles, chairman of South Yorkshire Police Federation, said: “It is absolutely shocking. The public are going to be in extreme danger if that occurs. We just cannot cope – even if we do merge into nine separate forces [as recommended by Met Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe in December 2014].

“It is not the number of forces, it is the number of officers that matters. If we lose all those officers and staff it could be the end of policing by consent as we know it. There will be no community policing, no neighbourhoods, no crime prevention work. All you will see is officers using enforcement powers.”

Sir Hugh told Jack Dromey, Labour’s shadow police minister, that the 34,000 job losses predicted would rise “exponentially” if the cuts imposed were to increase.

“The impact, however, in our view would be far greater on the frontline, which up to now forces have been trying to protect,” he said. “A greater number of officer posts would be involved and this could potentially have serious implications for statutory responsibilities and the safeguarding of the most vulnerable.”

Home Secretary Theresa May has said that the integration of police, fire and ambulance emergency services and the widespread use of body-worn cameras and smartphone apps by police officers would be needed to save time and money.

Mr Dromey said the cuts would mark the biggest made to any police service in Europe. A generation of progress in cutting crime is being reversed, with response times to 999 calls now 30 per cent longer, he said.

“Such savage cuts come at the worst possible time just when the demands on our police service mount by the day, from tackling child sex exploitation, through combating soaring fraud and online crime to the threats to our national security,” said Mr Dromey.