‘Madness’ of cuts that could send officer numbers below psychological 100,000 barrier

Police chiefs have been warned that draconian cuts earmarked for the autumn are “nothing short of madness” as the service reaches a critical tipping point.

Question marks hang over how ‘normal service’ will be maintained and the public’s safety assured when the Government’s next spending review is announced in November, delegates at the Excellence in Policing annual conference were told this week.

As many as 68,000 posts could go – with total officer numbers falling below the psychological 100,000 barrier – depending on the sharpness of the Treasury axe hanging over forces across England and Wales.

The anticipated reductions of between 25 and 40 per cent are a “high risk” strategy, Lancashire Constabulary Chief Constable Steve Finnigan told the conference.

And the Home Office was accused of failing to tailor its cuts to help the imbalance suffered by individual forces – with the likely outcome of some “going to the wall faster than others”.

Mr Finnigan, Head of the National Police Chiefs’ Council Performance Management Coordination Committee, said that although dramatic changes had been made in the last six years, including “doing our bit to bring down public debt” with meaningful contributions, it was not enough to be saved from deep budgetary trauma.

On the consequence of savage cuts, he argued: “My view it is extremely high risk, purely because of the nature of what we do. We deal with risk every day.

“I wonder if there are too many people in the room who think that a further 25 to 40 per cent cuts is anything other than madness, I think it is.

“But does that make me a shroud waver? Am I a prophet of doom? A scaremonger? I don’t think so.”

He went on: “Surely most people would accept that, in any industry, if you continue to take out resources at the level we are contemplating now, how confident can you feel about sustaining service delivery and crucially protection for people.”

As a chief constable, Mr Finnigan said he understood the impact on confidence, staff morale and motivation from speaking out on the cuts.

“There are a few big questions we have got to be clearer on, than we are at the moment,” he added.

“We have not yet presented that compelling business case to describe precisely what it is that police do today,” Mr Finnigan said.

He added that future remedies to the current dilemma involved a “more preventative approach of policing” with closer partner integration.

“And I think it is important that we, the senior leaders in the service, do not present the future as a stroll in the park. In fact it’s anything but.”

The NPCC has written to Home Secretary Theresa May, calling on the Government to be “realistic” about the level of additional cuts that forces can absorb. Dramatic reductions threaten to “fundamentally change” the very fabric of policing in the UK, it has said.

The service saw 25 per cent real term reductions in the last spending review, which has accounted for the loss of 36,672 posts and £2.5 billion in savings since 2011. There are now dire warnings of a further 35,000 projected cuts in manpower up to 2020.

And it is not just police and crime commissioners and chief officers expressing concern, but reports by both the Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and the National Audit Office highlight the uncertain viability of policing’s current model.

In the last 24 hours, the spending review debate has also seen police chiefs announce they are considering whether to “reluctantly ask” Home Secretary Theresa May about introducing compulsory redundancy as an option for chief officers and police and crime commissioners.

An NPCC spokesperson said the possible gesture had come about as police chiefs “think carefully” about how they can continue to provide policing services to the public – if there are further big cuts to the policing grant in the spending review.

Nigel Brook, Acting Lead for NPCC Finance and Resources, said the police service found itself trapped by a Government plan to extract £20 billion of savings from publi