Home Secretary is “burying her head in the sand”

THE Home Secretary is “burying her head in the sand” about the reality of police cuts, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.

The Home Secretary accused police officers of “scaremongering”and “crying wolf”over multi-million pound cuts to policing budgets at her address to the Police Federation of England and Wales’annual conference on Wednesday.

Theresa May said: “The last five years have shown that it is possible to do more with less – crime has fallen, the frontline service has been maintained, and public confidence in the police is up, even as spending has reduced. But the deficit remains too high and more savings will need to be made and policing will have to play its part.”

But Neil Bowles (pictured), Chairman of South Yorkshire Police Federation, said: “We had practical examples of where community policing is breaking down, especially in South Yorkshire, and she totally ignored them.”

He added: “The plans are that we will lose even more officers than we have lost already. Up to now we have been projecting savings up to 2020. But now we have to project savings until 2018. So we have another 400 officers to go in the next three years. We can achieve that by retirement but think of all that experience we are going to lose with no recruits coming in for the future. It’s a nightmare.

“As expected, the country has cast its vote and we have to live with it for the next five years. Policing is in trouble.”

Jim Lucas, Secretary, added: “The term ‘burying your head in the sand’ comes to mind. We are plugging a dam. The reduction of police officers will continue and we will come to breaking point. We keep alluding to the riots in 2011. We have lost more officers now than were actually deployed to that. So God forbid if something like that happens again.”