Spotlight On North Yorkshire – Smoke Or Mirrors, Fact Or Fiction?

Reading Time: 2 minutes

It is no longer a secret that our old mucker Mike Pannett (@MikePannett) has declared his hand, he will be standing as an Independent Candidate in the forthcoming PCC Elections on May 5th.  I wish him all the very best and I’m sure he’ll be grateful for any little bit of help that we can give him.  With this in mind, here’s a little bit of help Mike.  Your opponents might not like it, but one thing that you can be certain of is that this post is based on FACT, it is the TRUTH

The current North Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner (Julia Mulligan, a Conservative if that makes any difference) has made a grand announcement that she is to increase the number of Police Officers in North Yorkshire to 1,400, paid for by a 1.99% increase in the Council Tax precept.   Police officer levels were reduced from the budgeted number of 1,392 to 1,343 after recommendations from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Policing (HMIC).

So Ms Mulligan intends to recruit 57 officers to raise the level not only back to where they were but more.  That sounds like a good idea.  That could even get her a few votes.  If that was the whole of the story that is.

When the previous government took office in 2010 and David Cameron, Theresa May, Sir Tom et al set about ‘reforming’ the Police, North Yorkshire had a total of 1,461 officers as at 30th September that year.

  • September 2011 –    1,432
  • September 2012 –    1,394
  • March 2013 –            1,370
  • September 2013 –    1,374
  • March 2014 –            1,408
  • September 2014 –    1,404
  • March 2015 –            1,395
  • September 2015 –    1,347

I’m not quite sure where her 1,343 and 1,392 numbers come from but the numbers above are only 6 monthly snapshots so between dates the number could have been anything.  The numbers above ARE however OFFICIAL Home Office figures, so they do not lie.

What North Yorkshire Police are actually trying to do is to recruit more officers merely to part-replace those they have already shed.  Replacing experienced (and expensive) officers with recruits at a fraction of the cost.

Even if Ms Mulligan recruits her ‘extra’ 57 officers and attains 1,400 once more, how is that ‘extra’ compared to the 1,461 of 2010?

You follow me on Twitter Ms Mulligan, please feel free to explain in open forum how this works.  The numbers will still be down, most sources now agree that crime is rising for a variety of reasons.  Even 57 new recruits won’t bolster the specialist units that have been savaged (dogs, mounted, rural  etc).

Blow away the smoke and mirrors and let’s all here the real situation.  I am absolutely certain that Mike Pannett will conduct his campaign on a bedrock of truth and fact, not spin or a version of the facts..  Why don’t all candidates do the same?

Enjoyed the post? Share it?
0
0
Scroll to Top
Verified by MonsterInsights