Police numbers: back to the 1970s?

The SNP has today highlighted reports that police officer numbers in England and Wales could be reduced by 22,000 due to further spending cuts planned by the Westminster government – compared to an increase of 1,000 officers in Scotland since 2007. This is much lower than previously expected.

Drastically reducing funding for police by around 25 per cent would see the number of officers fall to its lowest level since the 1970s.

Earlier, the chancellor George Osborne told Home Office that funds the police, that their cuts would range from 25%-40%.

Some 18,000 police officers have already been lost in cuts since 2010, along with a reduction in civilian staff and buildings.

The London-based analysts went on saying that the cuts would deepen the conflicts between police and the government and the conflicts would have its own consequences for the UK society.

As a result of the cuts, the small Sussex force which dealt with the recent Shoreham air crash is reportedly facing the loss of at least a further 500 officers.

We can’t predict how funding cuts would impact on the number of police officers, so we can’t check out the 22,000 figure.

“The creation of Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority has allowed local policing to prosper with dedicated local police officers supported by specialist services available wherever they are needed in Scotland”. To keep making these savings at some point you have to reduce staff costs’.

Home Office officials and police have formed a so-called “gold group”, who will meet to formulate arguments to the Treasury ahead of its decisions on funding.

“This threatens to end a generation of progress in crime reduction as neighbourhood policing is hollowed out”.

Mike Penning, minister for policing, crime, criminal justice and victims said: “Police reform is working”.

The number of crimes logged by police was still 20 per cent lower than in 2008-09. What matters is how officers and staff are deployed, not how many of them there are in total.

“There is no question that the police still have the resources to do their important work”.

He claimed the changes the government have made since 2010 have “made it easier for the police to do their job” by cutting red tape and scrapping “unnecessary targets”.

In May, Home Secretary Theresa May accused the Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, of “crying wolf” after it issued a string of alarming warnings about the impact of austerity. “Decisions on the operational deployment of resources, such as PCSOs, are matters for chief constables, in association with police and crime commissioners”. It would be a cut of 25 per cent of how much money the government gives the police from now until 2020.

What’s more, an even greater figure has been predicted by some senior figures.