Almost a week ago, George Osborne and the coalition announced the cuts they have been planning.
Parts of these cuts have been on my mind more than others.
Some, dare I say, are quite fair and reasonable, others are, well … less so.
Ed Miliband and other members of the governments opposition have openly admitted that cuts would have been needed regardless as to which political party was in power. However, cuts so deep and fast are both unnecessary and potentially very dangerous to the economy.
On this particular blog I am going to focus on policing.
The Home Office is cutting police funding by 20% over 2 years. This according to police federation estimates could mean these cuts on this scale to the following regional services:
Lancashire 600 fewer officers over four years
West Midlands 1 000 officers to go as part of cost savings totalling £140
Kent 500 officers to be cut over four years
Hampshire 120 officers to go per annum over four years through natural wastage
With such drastic cuts happening to the police services, it makes me think.
With such staffing reductions and other potential reductions and restrictions will the police force be able to sustain its self at its current performance levels?
So I ask this, can we all be in this together if crime rates soar as they have potential to do so?
Are we all in this together?
Or is this just another empty coalition sound bite?
It is important to remember that crime statistics are not a true account of crime, they do go in some way in illustrating the problem of crime, but are not very reliable.
Drug reclassification may happen quicker then thought due to policing cuts, as at the moment its rather expensive to tackle the problem of certain drugs such as cannabis. Other policing departments may also be cut, for example fraud and rape maybe amalgamated into homicide departments.
This is true, but I find it difficult to believe that the police as a whole can sustain or do a better job with the cuts to there funding being so deep.
Yes, drug reclassification may be quicker but some of the more ‘simple’ things such as police presence on streets, or response time may be affected.