UNISON Gwent police branch is writing to national assembly members, the Welsh government and candidates for the new police and crime commissioner elections as part of a campaign against the force pressing ahead with plans to effectively make half its custody and detention officers redundant and replace them with police officers.
UNISON organises 32 custody detention officers. They are members of police staff, working in custody suites in Newport Central and Ystrad Mynach police stations. Management plans mean that 15 of them will face redundancy or, at best, redeployment.
Branch secretary Linda Sweet warns that as well as job losses, the move will “actually pull bobbies off the street” to do “back-office” jobs.
“At the moment, these police officers are out there protecting the public and doing a good job, and now 15 of them will be brought into custody suites,” she told the local South Wales Argus.
The branch has been involved in consultation on the plans, led by Nicola Goodwin – herself a custody detention officer – and branch chairman Roger Smith. Throughout, they have challenged the force’s business case, which did not, for instance, include the costs of redundancies or of training officers in custody duties.
Now, says Ms Sweet, Gwent Police says the moves are about “flexibility not finance”.
And she warns that the force is trying to push through the plans before a new police and crime commissioner is elected in November.
“If this is allowed to happen,” warns Ms Sweet, “all police staff could be replaced with police officers.”