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Press Release

Top down, bottom up: Police speak with one voice on cuts danger

14 September 2010

The Government can no longer pretend that the forthcoming spending cuts are not going to dangerously reduce the police’s ability to control crime as the number of officers falls.

When the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) warned that there could be up to 40,000 fewer officers as a result of the cuts, Police Minister Nick Herbert accused it of “scaremongering”.

But now, in an almost unprecedented display of unanimity between management and workforce, the Police Superintendents’ Association has backed PFEW.

At the Association’s annual conference, its President, Derek Barnett, was expected to describe Mr Herbert’s dismissal of PFEW as “disingenuous”.

PFEW Chairman Paul McKeever said that cuts would present criminals with “an early Christmas present”.

Mr Barnett agreed that there would be “more criminals at large” and suggested a further threat – that at a time when there was likely to be an increase in social tensions, the police’s ability to deal with widespread disorder on the streets would be impaired.

The Association of Chief Police Officers, too, is on record as warning that the cuts will result in fewer officers.

The entire Police Service, from top management down, is now speaking with one voice which the Government ignores at its peril – and, sadly, at the peril of the public.



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Metropolitan Police Federation

Metropolitan Police Federation

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