16 May 2011
Cuts to police budgets will result in a worse service and more crime, police officers believe.
An a survey of 42,000 police officers in England and Wales, published today, 86% said the planned 20% cuts to the police budget over the next four years would have a detrimental effect on crime levels. Some 91% said the public would experience a decline in service as a result of a reduction in police officer numbers.
The survey, conducted by the Police Federation, also found morale in the police service was plummeting, with 98% of respondents saying it had fallen due to the planned budget cuts.
With changes to police pensions and pay in the pipeline too, 90% of police officers believed their employment terms and conditions would decline so much that some would be forced to leave the service.
Police Federation chair Paul McKeever said members feel ‘they are being hit from all sides by a government who appear intent on pushing terms and conditions back decades, cutting police numbers and imposing a 20% cut on the service which will undoubtedly lead to increased levels of crime and a poorer service for the public’.
He added: ‘The federation is not opposed to change and accept that policing must play its part in public sector cuts. But there is a right way and a wrong way to reform.’
He suggested that a royal commission on policing should be set up to determine a better way of changing the service.
The government claims the budget cuts can be achieved through back-office savings and will not affect the front line.
