Smoke and mirrors over extra police numbers
I was interviewed on Good Morning Britain to speak about today’s announcement by the Government to restore public confidence in policing.
Whilst any uplift in numbers is to be welcomed, let’s be clear, Labour's election manifesto promised 13,000 extra “police” and the public rightly expected this to mean police officers. In reality, police forces will only be getting a handful of police officers - and for Sussex this means just 43 more.
This is because only 3,000 of the 13,000 promised will actually be police officers. The other 10,000 “extra police” will be a mix of PCSOs (with no warranted powers) Special Constables (volunteers who work 16 hours per month) and staff who have been redesignated from other duties.
Whilst PCSOs and Special Constables bring great benefits and play a valid part in modern policing, I am sure I am not alone in finding this news disappointing as we were led to believe the 13,000 would all be police officers.
The Government’s funding settlement for policing leaves forces nationally with a £118million gap this year. Here in Sussex, despite a stringent efficiency programme, we still have £5million of savings to find because we receive the fifth lowest funding per head of population with local taxpayers paying the seventh lowest police precept in their council tax bills. Police forces are also struggling to balance their books because of the Chancellor’s increase in National Insurance costs, despite manifesto pledges not to raise taxes. Our Sussex-based victims’ services are also facing these unwelcome additional National Insurance rises which is why I have stepped in to cover the increase for the coming year.
The previous Conservative Government’s Uplift programme to deliver 20,000 more police officers did just that and helped me to deliver record numbers of police officers for Sussex. Thanks to that extra money, we now have 739 additional police officers, making our county one of the safest in England and Wales with more police officers in over a decade.
This Government sweet talked voters with exaggerations about police and community safety that will leave a bitter after taste when the uplift in visible policing turns out to be smoke and mirrors and yet another bogus Labour promise.
