Funding Cuts Could Have Serious Impact On Officers

OFFICERS could struggle to cope with the demands placed on them once cuts to ‘every department’ at South Yorkshire Police are imposed.

Police and Crime Commissioners across England and Wales have been told to expect ‘standstill’ budgets only as the Government tries to plug the hole in the country’s finances as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

And South Yorkshire PCC Dr Alan Billings has said it is likely to affect every department on the force.

Whitehall has pledged it will not be returning to the previous administration’s self-imposed decade of austerity.

However, what is essentially a cut in funding could have serious implications for the county’s officers, according to South Yorkshire Police Federation.

Chairman Steve Kent said: “What’s difficult from our perspective as a force is that we’re one of the poorer forces in the country in terms of the council tax precept we receive as opposed to some southern forces.

“So it’s a challenge for us to try and make these ends meet and I sympathise with the force to be put in that position.

“My concern is that the end net result of that will be that overtime will go.

“In one sense that’s a good thing because it means officers are properly rested, but in another sense, it puts a strain on the officers who are left with fewer resources to deal with what the overtime budgets were there to plug the gaps for.

“I’m concerned about this intermediate period where the extra officers haven’t landed yet, and they’re not embedded, whereas we’re still at the same numbers.

“Until those cops are bedded in we’re going to struggle.”