.
The Chairman of the Police Federation warns that if the 25% funding cuts proposed by the government go ahead the result could be up to 40,000 fewer police officers over the next four years and that it ‘can't but have a detrimental effect on the service’.
It remains to be seen where the cuts will fall and we will not know until the full review is made public in October. Hopefully, the government will see the need to maintain a full-strength police force in times of economic uncertainty and the possibility of increased crime levels, though already some forces have announced reductions in the number of officers.
One thing the Home Secretary could do is to get rid of the Police Community Support Officers, the so-called ‘plastic policemen’, who have very little powers, don’t carry handcuffs and have no powers of arrest, can’t conduct interviews or deal with prisoners. They appear regularly in the newspapers either for being unable or unwilling to do various things. Such as in the case of the headmaster of a school in Essex who has been told that the local PCSOs may not guide pupils cross the road because they haven’t been trained to do so.
The Home Secretary has an opportunity to review police expenditure and, while making the cuts that we all know are inevitable, make them in such a way as the policemen on the beat are actually benefited by it.
Getting rid of PCSOs or, alternatively, switching them to office work might help. Cutting the ridiculous amount of paperwork police officers are burdened with would certainly help. Putting coppers back on the streets and paying clerks to do the office work would be a major help, even if police have to do a bit more beat-work than at present.
But whatever she does, one hopes that it does not lead to a reduction in the numbers of police actively dealing with crime.
.
The Chairman of the Police Federation warns that if the 25% funding cuts proposed by the government go ahead the result could be up to 40,000 fewer police officers over the next four years and that it ‘can't but have a detrimental effect on the service’.
It remains to be seen where the cuts will fall and we will not know until the full review is made public in October. Hopefully, the government will see the need to maintain a full-strength police force in times of economic uncertainty and the possibility of increased crime levels, though already some forces have announced reductions in the number of officers.
One thing the Home Secretary could do is to get rid of the Police Community Support Officers, the so-called ‘plastic policemen’, who have very little powers, don’t carry handcuffs and have no powers of arrest, can’t conduct interviews or deal with prisoners. They appear regularly in the newspapers either for being unable or unwilling to do various things. Such as in the case of the headmaster of a school in Essex who has been told that the local PCSOs may not guide pupils cross the road because they haven’t been trained to do so.
The Home Secretary has an opportunity to review police expenditure and, while making the cuts that we all know are inevitable, make them in such a way as the policemen on the beat are actually benefited by it.
Getting rid of PCSOs or, alternatively, switching them to office work might help. Cutting the ridiculous amount of paperwork police officers are burdened with would certainly help. Putting coppers back on the streets and paying clerks to do the office work would be a major help, even if police have to do a bit more beat-work than at present.
But whatever she does, one hopes that it does not lead to a reduction in the numbers of police actively dealing with crime.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment