At the Superintendents Association Conference on September 15, Home Secretary Theresa May told officers that savings need to be made in policing, but that ‘lower budgets do not automatically mean lower police numbers.’ It was in effect the Coalition response to the police’s latest public effort to escape public spending cuts as far as possible.
Tensions
Addressing comments made by Association President, Derek Barnett about the potential impact of budget cuts on policing social tensions in the UK, she said the British public don’t simply resort to violent unrest in the face of challenging economic circumstances. The Home Secretary encouraged officers not to pre-judge the outcome of the spending review, adding that the frontline should be the ‘last place you should look to make savings, not the first’.
Bureaucracy
It is the responsibility of everyone to look at their internal processes to strip out bureaucracy, she said. Ms May added that if individual forces want to consider a merger as a way of saving costs, then those cases would be considered – but mergers will not be forced on anyone: ‘We won’t burden you with a never-ending string of new initiatives. We won’t impose national targets and one-size-fits-all solutions to local problems.’
Directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners, she said, will return democracy to policing. ‘That person – the Police and Crime Commissioner – will have a mandate from the public to hold his or her chief constable and police force to account. They will ensure that the police focus on what local people want.’
Meanwhile, beat meetings will allow the public to scrutinise the work of their local force and she promised that crime data will allow people to see ‘what is happening on their streets.’
She concluded her speech by calling on senior police officers to inspire those under their command: ‘to make things happen and to drive the service forward. You hold the key to delivering reform.’
Earlier this month ACPO lead on finance and resource Chief Constable Grahame Maxwell said: The police service is acutely aware of the current pressures on public accounts and we acknowledge the need to make our share of reductions in spending. The full extent of the cuts we face will not become clear until after the comprehensive spending review in the autumn, but we are planning for a range of scenarios, both as individual forces and as a service.
"If the cuts are at the lower end of the spectrum, then it may be possible to address a sizeable proportion of these through reductions in non-staffing costs and by making savings through further improvements in process and more efficient procurement. If the proposed cuts are larger, then inevitably this will impact upon the numbers of police staff and officers. This is a risk but forces are bracing themselves for those tough choices. The impact will be felt differently on each individual force, but chief constables will be doing all they can to protect the front line and to provide the best possible policing service with the resources available to them.”
