“MPs must keep promises to repair a broken policing system”

SOUTH Yorkshire Police Federation Chairman Steve Kent has called on the new Conservative Government to follow through with the promises MPs made during their campaign in order to repair a broken policing system.

Steve said that it was a real positive to see a direction change from the last Tory regime, with the new Conservative Government making the right sounds in their commitments to lifting officer numbers and increasing pay.

He said “It’s important that the Government now follow through with these promises they have made and put their money where their mouth is. We need to have those extra cops in post. We need to see improvements in police officer pay.

“But, we also need to have the commission on policing, which I would urge looks at the mental health side of policing, because that’s a massive problem at the minute.”

Steve did also raise concerns that if not monitored closely, these promises could easily be forgotten.

He continued “It’s great to see an appetite for politicians to address the issues in policing and the criminal justice system – because at the moment it’s broken. But if we let them, these promises could quite easily get forgotten. Let’s monitor them closely and urge them to make these big moves to begin to repair the damage.

“I call on the Government to keep getting the numbers up, keep getting cops trained with Taser, let’s keep improving the infrastructure for dealing with mental health crises in policing, and let’s have a good look at the IOPC.”