The Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Gwent has hit out at “brutal cuts” that will be “unsustainable” for policing in Gwent.
PCC Ian Johnston said a 5% cut in funding from the Home Office will stretch police resources to “dangerous levels” by impacting upon frontline policing.
Mr Johnston said: “Whilst I understand the need for cuts during times of austerity, I am very concerned about the rationale behind continuously reducing the budget of frontline policing.
“These on-going cuts are not sustainable and will only succeed in further stretching our already diminishing resources to dangerous levels in future. You just can’t put a price on public safety.”
The cuts will see the Government’s police grant fall by £299m, meaning funding to Gwent Police will have been cut by a 30% in real terms over the last six years.
The cash cut for 2015/16 comes on top of the force’s recurring annual deficit of almost £6m.
Mr Johnston said: “This will no doubt have an adverse effect on all of the priorities outlined in my police and crime plan and these brutal cuts to policing are bound to have an impact on police service provision.
“We have already lost over 220 police officers in Gwent and nearly 170 staff members. We can’t just rely on new technology to deliver improvements in policing. Rural areas such as Gwent are best served by officers on the ground.
“I think people need to realise that as austerity measures bite even further, we will need to concentrate policing into priority areas first. I honestly don’t think the scale of planned cuts to the police service over the next few years has been understood by the public or politicians.
“The reality is that we have some tough challenges ahead and we have to be more flexible and agile to meet the demands.”
Policing Minister Mike Penning dismissed Mr Johnston’s claims and said by cutting red tape and scrapping targets, police reform is working.
He said a survey shows crime has fallen by more than a fifth under the current Government and that police will still have resources to do their job.
Mr Penning said: “The police are making their contribution to reducing the deficit and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary recently found that forces are successfully meeting the challenge of balancing their books while protecting the frontline and delivering reductions in crime.
“Under this Government there is significantly greater local accountability and transparency and police leaders have taken the opportunity to radically reform the way they deliver services to the public.”
In representing US, the people of Gwent, ( Who elected him) The Crime
Commissioner Ian Johnston is right to highlight the plight UK Government
Financial Constraints may `cause and effect` the way, we, the citizens
of Gwent feel policing is being performed on our streets.
Ian
Johnston said “Whilst I understand the need for cuts during times of
austerity, I am very concerned about the rationale behind continuously
reducing the budget of front line policing”. Surly, any decisions to
reduce `front line` policing is a relative matter, and rest in the hands
of those prortionating the entire budget?. DONT CUT IT. CUT SOMETHING
ELSE however unpopular that makes the Commissioner in “Top Table
circles`, ( He has his job because he was ELECTED to it by the people),
it is the people of Gwent he owes his first duty to to maintain front
line policing.
I presume Ian Johnston means, from he said, he
has his eye on Front Line Policing being disproportionately effected by
any reduction in the Police budgets?
There are many ways that the
Police Service can save money, or, at least, the public notice things
which appear to be `extravagant `, for instance, When Community Support
Officers were established they were intended to walk the streets,
communicating and engaging with the populous, they were said to become
the first line in communication between the police and the communities,
it was said they would establish and maintain good community
relationships with the public ( on the streets).
So far so good,
and many do a credible job protecting communities, and maintaining and
upholding the principals of good policing, but, in order to fulfil the
duties they perform do they really need police vehicles to use in the
line of duty?, each vehicle costs at least £8,000 per year to lease or
buy, maintain and run, someone recently calculated the costs of the
recent innovation and` convenience`, to be in excess of £200,000 per year
on the gwent police budget. The use of these vehicles turns the
Community Officers into a `reactionary response` unit and removes the
opportunity for officers to engage with the community,
How much
money and resources do the Gwent Police contribute to the Caerphilly
Safety Partnership?, this is a group that the public `generally` have
never heard of and certainly have had nothing to do with, yet in all
ways they pay for it through the rates and taxes they pay. The budget for
the `unit` pays for `Street Wardens`, again, these people have brand
new vans to use at their discretion, they always appear to work in pairs
( Health and Safety) and are as rare on our streets as is becoming a
Police Officer. These civilian staff are dressed like robo cops and have
little authority do anything effective for the benefit of communities
who pay the bills, they are not a reactionary resource, and defy anyone
to give me a good reason to contact this them, yet, the Gwent Police
make finance and valuable resources available to this `Private Security
Outfit`, but without, it appears, any real control over it, it has no
management and supervisory, or `control and command` structure, and noone can say how much the entire thing costs.
There are many
other examples of what `appears` to be wasted money resources, which our
elected Commissioner should be addressing, the words Trees, Wood, and
can`t see come to mind, front line policing by dedicated and committed
police officers and CSO`s must be the LAST thing to be cut.
No police presence in newbridge or crumlin.
Given the resources the Gwent Police can and will do good job, and they do what is best for the communities it serves. The problems are that citizens within communities have little or no influence over Policing beyond complaining.
There is no proper process for citizens to really influence policing in their communities other than through the ballot box, that is to say that the Crime Commissioner has consistantly and publicily declared that the way he influences what goes on in communities throughout his area of responsibility is be by `consulting` local politicians, who, he says, “knows everything that is going on in their communities”, his deputy also reinforced that process as being the way his office would `consult` the public in influencing the way he did his job. He actually said this at his ` interview` for the job.
So, the man in the street will not be meaningfully consulted on policiing plans in Gwent other than through local Councillors, the Deputy Chief Constable has also reiterated this very same `method` of `consulting` communities on best practice policing.
A number of meetings have been held by the DPC with elected Councillors at a number of levels to consult them on policing plans for Gwent, so, the only way to influence the process which both the Gwent Police and our elected Crime Commissioner will be through the ballot box, members of Gwent Public were not and are not welcome at such private meetings,
The current processes of public citizen engagement by the Gwent Poiice is seriously flawed and is difficult to identfy at all if it does indeed exist at all.
It will therefore by very difficult for our elected Crime Commissioner to come out fighting against the Government issues he finds so hard to accept, he will of course have the support of the Chief Constable in his critisisms, and fears, but, how on earth can he expect citizens and communities to enthuse behind him, when he and the Chief Constable and his office fail to properly consult citizens and communities of policing those communities, at all other times, perhaps he is best placed at times like these by seeking the support of those Councillors he normally gives the credit too for doing the best for the communities they serve, they are the people he should now rely on to get behind him, and not issue such press statements aimed at people he normally places way down his list of priority consultees. I hold the view that as he is `elected` to the post he holds he should, like all other people `elected to power, be able to rely on the support of the citizens he serves, he has to seek that support, but he has not yet done so.