\u201cThe public of South Yorkshire have been completely and utterly betrayed by the previous decade of Government.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Chair of South Yorkshire Police Federation, Steve Kent, said that cuts to the police service in the early 2010s have led to \u201can absolute nightmare\u201d, after a former Conservative minister admitted things could have been \u201cdone differently\u201d.<\/p>\n
In the wake of the Leeds riots, Sir Robert Buckland was asked on GB News whether the previous Home Secretary Theresa May had made a mistake in \u201ctaking a machete to police numbers\u201d. Sir Buckland replied: \u201cIt was something that perhaps we could have done differently.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve said: \u201cThis is a case of \u2018we told you so\u2019. The public of South Yorkshire have been completely and utterly betrayed by the previous decade of Government, because the cuts decimated the numbers of police officers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn our force we\u2019re still not back to where we were on numbers. We used to have 3,500 officers, it went down to 2,600 in the last decade, and now it\u2019s only back up to 3,100. We actually need to be at around 3,700 officers to be able to cope and deal with demand.<\/p>\n
\u201cMeanwhile we\u2019ve seen increases in financial crime and cybercrime. Then across the country there\u2019s been a rise in knife crime. Look at our traffic departments, they\u2019ve been decimated. You only have to ask any member of the public and they\u2019ll tell you they don\u2019t see traffic cars anymore. It\u2019s absolutely broken across the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cMembers of the public in South Yorkshire should be very proud of what we do with so little, but it\u2019s an absolute nightmare. It was so obvious to see it was going to happen and, lo and behold, here we are.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen an unprecedented attack on policing, it\u2019s been the worst since the formation of the Federation in 1919. There needs to be some serious repair work done.\u201d<\/p>\n