Police Can’t Deliver To The Public With ‘Threadbare’ Resources

Policing is “threadbare” and struggling with funds and resources, South Yorkshire Police Federation said, after a new report identified “widespread systemic failings” in the service.

His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Andy Cooke, published his first annual assessment of policing in England and Wales, ‘The State of Policing’, on 9 June. In it he says that the police service is at a “historic turning point” and that major reform is needed, including new powers for Inspectors.

He also said that the police needed to prioritise issues that mattered most to the public; that forces needed to concentrate on effective neighbourhood policing; and that critical elements of the police service’s leadership and workforce arrangements needed substantial reform.

But this can’t happen without access to the right funds and resources, the Chair of South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.

Steve Kent said: “The problem is that policing is still threadbare and when we look at South Yorkshire Police, we are one of the poorest-funded forces in the country because of the precept [how much council tax is spent on policing].

“What that means is that we are struggling to do so much more with so much less. We just don’t have the pool of resources and we don’t have the financial flexibility to actually do what the public expects of us. We are constantly on the red line as an organisation.

“And make no mistake about it, everybody throughout the force is working their socks off and that’s been reflected in our HMIC grading – considering how poor we are as a force, it is staggering that we’re in the top 10.

“But there has got to be a massive culture change in police resources, because policing is slowly grinding to a halt. It’s almost like an engine that’s starved of oil. We’re alright, we keep going a bit, we keep going an extra mile, an extra couple of miles. Sooner or later it’ll stop.

“If you couple that with people potentially leaving policing, you’ve got a massive crisis coming in policing.”