ALLOWING police officer numbers in England and Wales to drop below 100,000 would be \u201catrocious\u201d and leave the police\u00a0in serious danger of not being able to provide a service to the public.<\/p>\n
Neil Bowles, Chairman of South Yorkshire Police Federation, said such a drop in numbers would \u201ctake us back to the pre-1970s – and look how much crime and population have changed since then\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Police and crime commissioners across England and Wales fear that police officer numbers will fall below 100,000 by 2019\/20 and that criminals will feel safer as a result.<\/p>\n
In a submission ahead of the Government\u2019s 2015 Comprehensive Spending Review \u2013 coming in November \u2013 the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners said that \u201cbudget cuts will radically change policing\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Bowles (pictured) said: \u201cIt\u2019s absolutely ridiculous to the think that our staffing levels will drop that low. Our\u00a0officers are getting assaulted left, right and centre, up and down the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Government need to wake up and smell the coffee.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe dangers are the fact that we just won\u2019t be able to bring a proper investigation together. I mean, I\u2019ve already heard a DCI talking about murder cases, we can\u2019t afford to do a house-to-house enquiry,\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0just going to do a letter drop instead.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole quality of investigation is just going to drop. You\u2019re not going to see officers on the\u00a0street,\u00a0you\u2019re not going to get your burglary seen to immediately. It\u2019s just atrocious.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Bowles added: “I think the government have started to believe their own mantra that\u2019s coming out of the Home Office, that crime is down, police reform\u2019s\u00a0working,\u00a0more front line services are protected. We all know that it\u2019s a load of rubbish.<\/p>\n
\u201cCrime isn\u2019t down, it\u2019s rising and I\u2019ve said all along it doesn\u2019t include the fraud figures that apparently are just about to be included.\u00a0Cyber crime,\u00a0All\u00a0sorts of things aren\u2019t included, minor pubic order traffic offences.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve just seen the figures for our demand over the last three years, it hasn\u2019t altered one iota whether crime\u2019s dropped or hasn\u2019t. We still get the same demand in through the call centres.\u201d<\/p>\n
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