16.08.11
Cuts will hit frontline police
Police cuts will hit frontline officers the hardest, according to new research by the Cardiff University’s Police Science Institute.
Tim Brain, the former Gloucestershire police chief, analysed the Police Funding 2011 report to investigate the consequences of the planned cuts – and has now called for the Government to think again.
Prime Minister David Cameron and Home Secretary Theresa May have both reiterate that police budgets can be cut by up to 20% without a reduction in frontline police numbers, despite calls from senior figures to reverse the plans in the wake of last week’s riots – including Mayor of London Boris Johnson.
Brain said: "Ministers expect the brunt of such losses to fall in the so-called back office but with as many as 16,000 police officer posts going, there is little prospect of the frontline being unaffected.
"The growth in police officer numbers since 2004-5 has been principally to enable neighbourhood, or community, policing; it is likely that it will be in neighbourhood policing where the greatest impact will be felt. Ministers argue the police will be able to cope by concentrating resources – but you can only concentrate resources in one area by taking them from somewhere else."
Findings also suggest that grant funding for local policing will fall by £1.36bn over the next four years, with 34,000 police posts cut by 2014-15. Brain further stated that there had been too little time allocated to the police to phase in the cuts.
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