It’s no surprise to those of us in the ‘job’ that our numbers have been decimated in the wake of budget cuts and frontline reforms over the last 12 months. Another round of cuts are just around the corner and that frontline protection offered by Teresa May seems like a distant memory.
Figures published today from FOI requests made to all the Police Forces across England and Wales appear to confirm that our fears and muzzled discontent were, indeed, justified. Of the 43 Forces that were sent a request, 23 have supplied data in respect of the previous and current numbers of officers that attend emergency calls in a ‘first responder’ role. These roles include response teams and specialist officers such as Roads Policing, Dog and Firearms units.
When the cuts were announced the Government promised that, although the reduced budgets would mean a reduction of 16,000 Police officers from the current level, those on the ‘front line’ would be protected and their numbers would be spared the effects of the 20% cull on budgets.
It appears that this has not quite gone to planned and that, from the figures available, zero cuts has actually translated into the removal of 5,261 officers from these essential roles since the end of 2010. Some forces have reported a drop of up to 25% in their ‘first responder’ roles with Devon and Cornwall and West Midlands losing 540 and 1023 officers respectively.
These figures do not take into account the losses from the remaining 20 Police Forces yet to respond to the FOI enquiry and will therefore potentially increase by a significant amount.
Your friend and mine, Nick Herbert MP, said that actually these figures were scaremongering and attempted to offer reassurance by saying that a larger percentage of the total workforce are now on the frontline. That’s all well and good, but we know that the frontline percentage means nothing if the overall number of officers has been slashed by thousands.
Ironically as she continues to alienate the Police Officers of England and Wales it would appear that, in the last week, Teresa May has potentially lost a few votes in her own constituency after UK Border Agency staff raided the second of two restaurants frequented by the MP in respect of illegal immigrants employed there.
Teresa May was pictured opening the Innovation restaurant in Maidenhead last year and featured on the website of a second restaurant, Malik’s in Cookham, which was raided by the UKBA in August 2010. Following the most recent raid a spokesman said that, in relation to those detained, the agency would take ‘appropriate action’.
Perhaps this mantra is something that should be adopted by the Home Secretary in respect of her own policy decisions.
