Parties outline policing plans ahead of General Election

THE Labour Party has outlined an £800 million plan to protect neighbourhood policing and safeguard the jobs of 10,000 police officers over the next three years.

This is one of a number of policing promises that have been made in the run-up to the 7 May General Election.

Click here/see below for all the main political parties’ policing pledges.

The “efficiency savings”, the Labour Party said, are to be funded by scrapping Police and Crime Commissioners, ending the subsidy of the gun licensing system and by making police forces share back-office and procurement services.

Labour’s crime and justice manifesto said the party will create a victims’ law, ban the sale of “legal highs” from the streets and establish a new commissioner to tackle sexual and domestic violence.

The party’s manifesto says that a Labour government would legislate to introduce a new “local policing commitment”, which would guarantee neighbourhood policing in every area.

The Association of Chief Police Officers warned last November that a further 20% cut in Home Office funding over the next parliament could lead to the loss of more than 34,000 police jobs, including 22,000 officers, from a total workforce of 205,000.

Labour has already committed to matching the next round of police spending cuts, totalling £299 million.

The number of police officers in England and Wales has already fallen by 16,000 as a result of the first round of austerity cuts from a peak of 141,600 at the time of the last General Election in 2010 to 125,400 a year ago.

Commenting on the crime and justice manifesto, Labour leader Ed Miliband said: “Neighbourhood policing – the foundation of good policing – is at risk of disappearing, while increasing numbers of serious criminals are being left off the hook.

“Labour has a better plan. We will make different choices, finding savings to safeguard 10,000 officers in the next three years.”

The Conservative manifesto does set out plans to “finish the job” of police reform, namely ensuring the availability of health-based places of safety for mental health, overhauling the complaints system and reforming stop and search. Concerning for police officers and the service is the Tories’ announcement that they will plough an extra £8 billion into the NHS. But they have not explained exactly where that money will come from.

The Liberal Democrats are focusing on crime prevention and early intervention, in particular breaking the cycle of re-offending and introducing training programmes for prisoners to allow them re-integrate into society.

UKIP are against further cuts to frontline policing and they plan to redirect money from the foreign aid budget to deliver this.