- Conference
- 2018 Police & Justice Service Group Conference
- Date
- 2 October 2018
- Decision
- Carried
Conference was appalled to read the recent headline from the National Audit Office “Ministers unaware of cuts impact”. How could they not know that reducing funding or failing to recognise there was a funding problem and not supporting additional or appropriate levels of funding wouldn’t have an impact on service delivery.
It was pleasing to note that the article did refer to police staff in 1 line in the report – ‘the Home Office figures had not even forecast the effect of losing 44,000 police officers and staff since 2010’. However there is very little if any further reference to Police Staff roles and the impacts the drastic reduction in numbers is also having on the policing service.
The SGE have previously launched several campaigns highlighting the valuable roles that police staff perform both in their own rights and in support of police officer colleagues, however, as the recent news articles show there is very little recognition of this when cuts to policing news articles are written on screened on media outlets.
Conference calls on the SGE to:
• Ensure that the vital roles police staff play are raised with the Home Office,
• Consider launching a new “Cut Crime – not Police Staff” Campaign
• Work with Labour Link to raise the profile of police staff within policing and the impacts the cuts in police staff numbers has on the public and victims of crime
• Encourage branches to write to local MP’s and Councillors identifying the importance of police staff in providing vital services
• Work with branches and regions to host events raising awareness of the key roles that police staff have within policing and identifying the issues not having them will have on the public
• Work with other police associations such as the Police Federation, Superintendents association etc to jointly raise awareness that the impacts are having