The UK’s police service is ‘broken’ and forces are shedding officers because of funding cuts, according to a report in a leading British newspaper.
In a joint article for The Telegraph, the heads of the two bodies that represent ordinary officers and superintendents say police morale has been ‘crushed’.
As the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves prepares to set police budgets in her spending review, the pair warn that underpaid and overworked officers are leaving in droves, while forces are being left with no choice but to cut numbers to save money.
Statistics show that 9,000 police officers have left the service last year, the highest number ever recorded.
Nick Smart, the president of the Police Superintendents’ Association, and Tiff Lynch, acting national chairman for the Police Federation of England and Wales, have co-written an article for The Telegraph.
In an unusual joint intervention, the pair write: “The service is in crisis. When a young constable looks down at their payslip and wonders how they’ll make rent this month, something is deeply wrong.”
“When experienced detectives walk away from decades of service, broken by the demands placed on them, it’s the police service itself that’s broken.”
They add later: “Police forces across the country are being forced to shed officers and staff to deliver savings. These are not administrative cuts. They go to the core of policing’s ability to deliver a quality service: fewer officers on the beat, longer wait times for victims, and less available officers when crisis hits.”
They also deliver an explicit warning aimed at the Treasury, saying: “It is against this backdrop that the spending review arrives. This is the moment where political rhetoric must meet practical investment. It is not enough to talk about ‘tough on crime’. There must be the funding to match.”
It is just the latest intervention from police leaders, who have launched into a public lobbying effort to try to secure more funds amid fears of cuts in the spending review.
Police chiefs have said that Labour’s election pledges to halve violence against women and girls, tackle knife crime and rebuild neighbourhood policing will be at risk without proper funding, the newspaper reports.
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