South Yorkshire Police remains among the most \u201cunder resourced and underfunded\u201d forces in the country, its Federation has said.<\/p>\n
The bleak picture was revealed after the Government corrected its neighbourhood policing numbers, showing there were 2,611 fewer officers than previously thought.<\/p>\n
SYP Federation Chair Steve Kent said the force remained 400 officers down on its peak, urging the Government to help it grow.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThat figure doesn\u2019t take into account the differences in society to when we were at that number, which was pre-2010.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere needs to be a drastic uplift of police officers, especially in the neighbourhood policing area because that\u2019s how our force operates.<\/p>\n
\u201cNeighbourhood policing is our core function and everything else revolves around that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the urgent need for neighbourhood resources to be bolstered, Steve claimed this would not fix wider issues faced by the force.<\/p>\n
He called on wider investment across SYP so neighbourhood officers did not have to cover gaps in other departments.<\/p>\n
Steve said: \u201cIt\u2019s all very well having small response teams, for example, but all they\u2019ll end up doing is needing neighbourhood cops to come off their core duties to help out.<\/p>\n
\u201cPoorer northern forces like ourselves are still getting a raw deal and we are still 400-900 cops down on what we actually should be.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s considering when you look at similar forces, our crime levels and our population – and it\u2019s not acceptable.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you started talking about numbers like that, then I think the public would start to see a real significant change in the way that our cops would have time to go out and actually be proactive.\u201d<\/p>\n