President of the Police Superintendents’ Association (PSA), Nick Smart has spoken out following today’s (Wednesday 11th June) Comprehensive Spending Review announcement:
“Today’s funding announcement is a huge blow to the police service, which has once again been placed at the bottom of the government’s list of priorities.
“It is the first duty of government to keep its citizens safe, yet today we see no evidence of a commitment to doing this. Instead, ensuring public safety will be even more challenging, as demand on police rises, whilst funding does not. This three-year settlement means we will be left to ‘tread water’, rather than developing and improving our service. In fact, national figures suggest that this will cover little more than annual inflationary pay increases for officers and staff, and we will not only struggle to afford to recruit the additional 13,000 officers promised, we will likely see current numbers reduce.
“Many of the government’s election pledges centred around a commitment to ‘safer streets’, promising the public that it would meet ambitious targets such as halving knife crime. Yet the lack of investment announced today means we will continue to struggle to deliver the basics, to maintain officer numbers, cover inflationary costs, cover pay awards, and function as we are, let alone move forward on new public safety and transformation initiatives.
“Leaders representing every part of the police workforce have come out in unison, stating the stark truth of policing today, stressing that it will be impossible to deliver on the pledges made by government without increased, long-term investment, and once again, we are ignored.
“Our people are working in outdated buildings with woefully inadequate IT infrastructure, which is years behind the technical capability of many of the organized crime groups we now face, and that slows service delivery. Officers in every area are overworked and stretched to breaking point, and both new and experienced officers are leaving in numbers that are higher than we have ever seen.
“Today’s settlement provides no capacity for growth, no ability to make progress towards reform that is so urgently needed, and most critically, has the potential to put public safety at risk when we cannot respond in the way that communities rightly expect and deserve.
“The UK police workforce is one of the most committed, professional, and dedicated teams of people you will ever meet, but they cannot do everything with nothing. Today’s announcement means that things must change. We cannot continue to do more with less; we cannot continue to pick up the work of others.
“The Treasury has made its intentions clear – there is no backing or support for police. The question must therefore be asked – what is the police mission? Conversations must be had around true police demand, where we can begin to say “no”, and to stop answering calls for service for other agencies who turn to us when they are overwhelmed. We cannot continue to be society’s sticking plaster when other services falter.
“With no more money, it is even more essential to start moving on the changes the Service has been asking for. We need a better funding formula, collaborative arrangements to save millions on procurement, flexible funding to enable chief officers to spend on what is required, free of ‘ring fencing’ restrictions, and a review of the 43-force model.
“Public expectations must now be realigned. Our people will always do everything in their power to keep people safe, and will do their utmost to work with the government to do this, but today’s announcement has made that much harder.
“Let’s be clear, we are still operating in austerity. We were previously accused of “crying wolf” when we warned about the potential impact of cuts and austerity. We were right.
“We have made cuts and compromises year on year, for over a decade. This settlement is a missed opportunity to finally deliver police reform, and once again appears to be a shameful abandonment of the police service.”
