British Police to cut 5,800 frontline officers

Survey on impact of spending cuts warns against ineffective service in future

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London: Police forces are planning to reduce the number of frontline officers by 5,800 within the next three years, according to the latest official survey on the impact of Home Office spending cuts.

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) warns that there is a risk that three forces, the Met, Devon and Cornwall and Lincolnshire, may not be able to provide a sufficiently efficient or effective service to the public in future.

The report says 17,600 police jobs have already gone since March 2010 to find savings of £749 million (Dh4,31 billion). This is more than half the 32,400 uniformed officers and civilian staff jobs they now plan to shed by 2015.

The number of expected police job losses is now higher than previous official surveys and does not include Britain’s largest force, the Metropolitan police, or Cheshire which have yet to publish their plans over the next three years.

The HMIC report also reveals that forces in England and Wales plan to close public access to a fifth of all police stations — 264 front counters in all are to shut — but are planning to open 137 “public access points” in shared locations such as supermarkets and libraries.

The police inspectorate says the nature of frontline policing is changing, with forces merging response and neighbourhood teams, spending more on police investigations and police protection, and increasing the use of volunteer special constables by 9,000.

The report, Policing in Austerity: One Year On, says the number of officers that are “visible and available to the public” has already fallen by 5,500, including a fall of 5,200 response officers. This has been matched by a rise of 2,300 more neighbourhood officers.

But by 2015, forces say they plan to lose a total of 5,800 frontline police officers. Forces have to make savings of £2.4bn by 2015 as a result of a 20 per cent cut in Home Office grants to police authorities.

Sir Denis O’ Connor, the chief inspector of constabulary, said forces had risen to the financial challenge by cutting their spending while largely maintaining the service they provide the public but they still need to transform the way they work to prepare for the next round of spending cuts.

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