I’m not sure that I know the answer but I fear it may be the former, but some important people have yet to come up with some important answers.
Time to update an old favourite., Our Shrinking Police Service.
Where were we? Oh yes, back in 2012 The attention-grabbing headline back then was that 5,000 Police Officers had disappeared into the ether in the previous 12 months. So, how are we doing today? Well since then a further 6,191 have followed them.
Since the evil coalition came to power they have reduced the 43 Forces from 143,770 to 127,909 or 15,861 (11%) Police posts have GONE.
Many commentators have reported this today, but there is a bigger picture that I have yet to see reported prominently.
Our proud Police Family also includes Support Staff (civvies), PCSOs and Specials. How are they doing?
Support Staff
- Pre-Coalition – 79,296
- 2012 – 67,472
- 2014 – 64,096
A loss since the coalition came in of 15,200 or 19.2%
PCSOs
- Pre-Coalition – 16,507
- 2012 – 14,393
- 2014 – 13.066
A loss since the coalition came in of 3,441 or 20.8%
Special Constables
- Pre-Coalition – 14,251
- 2012 – 20,343
- 2014 – 17,789
An overall gain since the coalition came in of 3,538 or 24.8% , but don’t forget the recent trend is also downwards after a peak in 2012
So at first glance it looks like the Specials are taking up some of the slack like Cruella said they would, but their numbers are currently reducing as well.
The Ouchy Bit
- Total Police Family in 2009 was 253,824
- 2012 – 236,308
- 2014 – 222,861
A total loss to the Police Family of 30,963 or 12%.
Nearly 31,000 family members gone since this lot took power.
A certain politician was quoted today as saying that crime is down so the police have less to do.
- Crime Stats have yet to be sorted out as far as I know
- Police do far, far more than prevent and investigate crime
- If he and our other politicians actually believe this rubbish then it’s not so much a case of TJF, more like The Country’s F******.
And finally, the important (it is important surely?), unanswered question.
May I take you back to a previous blog
Policing In Austerity Two And A Half Years On
I wrote that at the beginning of this year and I asked the question;
Why is it necessary to reduce Manpower levels to LESS than their March 2015 Austerity Target Level?
Today’s figures show that those levels have dropped even further.
I would welcome any or all of our PCCs and/or Chief Constables to provide me with copies of their Risk and Impact Assessments for this (in my view) dangerous policy.
You can cut the budgets as much as you like Cruella, it still needs x number of Police Officers on duty, or available, to maintain the public safety of y head of population.
We’re getting Water Cannons, maybe you’ve got Drones and RoboCop in mind, I don’t know.
Could it possibly be that this destruction of our Police Service actually has less to do with Austerity than you would have us believe?
Mr Winsor has done you proud, can’t imagine why he never picked up his final paycheck.