Police chief responds to planned cuts
Devon and Cornwall Police have released a statement following today’s Police and Crime Panel meeting which has discussed budget challenges - including plans to axe 1,300 personnel - 760 of them police officers.
Chief Constable Shaun Sawyer said: “At today’s Police and Crime Panel the Police and Crime Commissioner has asked me to outline the Force’s response to a potential impact of our planned budget cuts in the coming years.
“It is clear that any cut of this magnitude would have a significant impact on the service we are able to provide to the public. We have clear statutory obligations around areas such as safeguarding, the National Strategic Policing Requirement, the Civil Contingencies Act (floods, disasters etc) etc and we are therefore considering which other services we can continue to provide, outside of those core services.
“Despite making plans for significant non staff cuts, over 80% of our budget is allocated as staff costs. Over the course of the last comprehensive spending review we shrank our budget by £58m; £20m of which came from non staff costs, which means that a small pot is already significantly smaller than it was.
“Therefore, based on the information we have at present, to meet the potential budget gap we must plan to reduce the overall workforce by 1,300 posts in the next five years. In order to achieve a reduction of 1,300 people we are looking at all options available to us.
“For example if we halt all police officer recruitment we would reduce by 760 posts (a 25% cut in our current officer numbers). 540 police staff posts would then also need to be found. This gives us equally difficult choices such as the complete removal of all 360 PCSO posts and a further 180 posts to be found from elsewhere in the organisation.
Chief Constable Sawyer added: “It is not lost on me that every single one of these “posts” is occupied by hard working, dedicated colleagues who strive to serve the public and provide essential policing services which keep the public safe.
“Overall this would mean that the workforce would have shrunk from 6,200 posts in 2010 to around 3,900 by 2019/2020.
“Clearly all of these figures are based solely on what we know currently about the potential cuts. We do not yet know the grant figures from the Home Office with whom we are continuing to work closely. All we do know is that we must plan now and revise our plans as the finances become clearer.”
In a statement Police Crime Commisioner Tony Hogg said: "I have been working with the Chief Constable over the past few months on the impact of the government funding reductions. I requested the Chief Constable to provide an impact assessment if the savings requirement for the force were to rise to £54m as predicted. The Chief Constable has today provided his initial professional assessment on the likely impact.”
“I accept that the Chief Constable has clearly set out the likely impact on policing and on our communities in Devon and Cornwall. I accept the professional view of the Chief Constable. As the elected representative of the public I do not believe that the public wish to allow all of these service reductions to pass unchallenged. I continue to lobby Government to ensure fair funding as the Government's current proposals unfairly takes at least £15m that should come to Devon and Cornwall but is being diverted to other parts of the country.”
“I am also minded to consult the public of Devon and Cornwall about whether they would be willing to pay more money through the policing element of the council tax to provide more resources to the police. I will announce my precise intentions on Monday 9th November.”
