‘Be Honest About Our Stretched Service’

Police leaders and the Government must not be “disingenuous” about the amount of available police officers, according to South Yorkshire Police Federation.

Chair Steve Kent said he was “sick of” hearing senior officials talk of getting extra officers.

He said officers were being made to work longer hours or come in on their days off to plug gaps created by a lack of staff.

Steve warned: “This is just stretching our blue line even thinner.

“Those officers will be pulled from other roles and then need more breaks in their normal job to come and do this.”

Steve’s comments came after the Government was warned there were no “extra police officers” to deal with the relentless demand faced by policing.

Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson made the comments during a question an answer session at the Superintendents’ Association conference in September.

Steve said policing’s response to disorder seen across the country in August showed what a well-resourced service was capable of.

However, he added: “But that couldn’t be maintainable forever. It took time and it took support from other forces, and it took support from other departments.

“This shows that a lot of society in Britain is broken, and we now need this bolstering of policing to actually take back control and actually start to proactively deal with some of these issues.”

Steve said he feared the situation was going to get worse before it improved, and that urgent action was crucial.

He continued: “I understand the financial position the country’s found itself in, but we can’t continue to do this.

“As far as I’m concerned, law and order – keeping the fabric of society together – is as important as anything, including the NHS.

“If society breaks down, everything breaks down. We have more people injured, we have more people hurt, we have crime through the roof.

“Actually, this needs to be front and centre and it needs to be done as a matter of absolute urgency because policing is crumbling across the country.”