BUDGET cuts have left the people of South Yorkshire in jeopardy as serious offenders escape justice, the local Federation has warned.<\/p>\n
The cold case review team \u2013 which had secured 11 convictions and sentences of 107 years in its first three years \u2013 was disbanded two years ago because the force could not afford to keep it going.<\/p>\n
But it is to be re-established as the \u201cMajor Incident Review Team\u201d to examine 26 unsolved murders in South Yorkshire \u2013 at a cost of \u00a3321,000 a year.<\/p>\n
Neil Bowles, Chairman of South Yorkshire Police Federation, said: \u201cThe return of a \u2018cold case\u2019 review team is just another example of the blind budget cuts that South Yorkshire Police have undergone in the past six years.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo thought was given to the consequences of salami cuts, the threat and risk ignored.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe welcome the team\u2019s return, because serious offenders have to be brought to justice, or else they may go on and commit further serious offences.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is one of the areas that our members and middle management warned the senior command team about, mentioned in the recent Peer Review Report, but it fell on deaf ears.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Alan Billings, Policing and Crime Commissioner, said: \u201cThese, as yet unsolved crimes were very serious and we owe it to the victims and their families to continue the work of bringing the perpetrators to justice.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth SYP senior officers or I as PCC believe that a new initiative to tackle some unsolved homicides was essential. We owe it to the bereaved families to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n