Police Swept Away By Paperwork
February 7, 2005 12:00 AM
Two years ago Stockport council tax payers coughed up extra money to pay for 50 more police officers to be recruited across the town. Last year they arrived, newly trained and ready to get out on the beat - exactly where we want them to be. Then last month the Police Authority issued a warning that unless the Government's grant for policing in Greater Manchester was increased some of those officers would be put behind desks instead of being out on the streets.
In a stark letter to the Home Secretary the Chair of the Authority said that they would have to get rid of civilian staff, and bring uniformed officers back inside to do the paperwork. The reason is that police costs are rising faster than the miserly grant figures, and the demands and targets set keep going up, too. But this time there isn't the option of asking the council tax payers to make up the difference, as we did before. That is because the Government has threatened to 'cap' any council that tries to have the big rise in charge that would be needed!
So why is the Government choking off its own grant to the police and forbidding councils to make good the difference? Maybe it is something to do with the forthcoming General Election. They think they will still be able to boast about record police numbers, and keep taxes down as well. But that's no good if the new officers are stuck behind desks shifting paperwork whilst the criminals stroll round the streets.
This is sheer lunacy, and Patsy Calton MP and I have already challenged the Home Office to guarantee that the number of police patrolling our town will be kept to at least the present levels over the next 12 months. Labour have made much of the fact that the horrific cuts in police numbers under the last Tory government have at long last been reversed. But that will be a very hollow boast indeed if all they finish up doing is pushing more and more paper round in ever decreasing circles.
So what do the Liberal Democrats plan instead? Keep the police we have already got out on the streets where they are needed, scrap the foolish ID cards plan, and bring in an extra 10,000 more police with the money saved.
It is just commonsense, really.
End
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