THE new Government must fund more officers for the frontline.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the message from South Yorkshire Police Federation which wants \u2018more investment\u2019 in officers\u2019 health and welfare alongside more bobbies on the beat.<\/p>\n
Policing is one of the hot topics for all parties contesting the 12th<\/sup>\u00a0December general election, and Federation Chairman Steve Kent wants whoever is in power to start an \u2018upward curve\u2019 in officer recruitment.<\/p>\n \u201cIn terms of what we want from Government, we are recruiting from our own money that was freed up, [and] coupled with the officers that the Government has pledged so far is a huge step in the right direction,\u201d Steve said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut we need to be mindful that this will take a while to embed and will only get us back to where we were in 2010. Any Government that comes in, there needs to be continued investment beyond this 20,000, and there needs to be a commitment to increase the numbers and also to focus on measures to deal with officers\u2019 stress and workloads, and to deal with officers\u2019 mental health while they\u2019re doing their jobs.<\/p>\n \u201cIt needs to be an upward curve rather than just a quick step and then carry on as normal.\u201d<\/p>\n South Yorkshire officer ranks could swell by 150 officers if recruitment plans are seen through, taking total officer numbers up to 3,000.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a start Steve says, but will only get the force back up to 2010 levels.<\/p>\n \u201cAs well as those 150 officers we\u2019re getting a similar number from our own budgets. The expectation is eventually South Yorkshire will get back towards the 3,000 figure, which is a great start, but again we\u2019re only getting back to where we were in 2010.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d still like to see continued investment so that number steadily increases over the next decade really, to get there to be a lot more police officers on the beat.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n