[12378andy]

My force (GMP) is now feeling the pinch along with most others I suspect! The issues with putting a stop to recruitment for us have been quite well publicised but there are other things being steadily chipped away at (OVERTIME!) as the government asks for "more with less." I was just curious really as to how you other fine officers are finding any cut backs in your areas, or if you are having any at all?

[CopOopNorth]

The cut backs are quite obvious though have not affected me directly. A lot of the administration departments are either being downsized or merged with others to combine costs. It seems sensible to be honest. Ignoring the very unpleasant human cost, there is a lot of waste in the police as an organisation and a bit of cost cutting might not be a tremendously bad thing. Bureaucracy and administration tends to create it's own bureaucracy to justify it's own existence and so a cutting back on these departments might end up being reflected in a little less admin on the frontline. Perhaps that is me being unduly positive...

The rank and file don't seem to be feeling the pinch yet, and for all the talk about overtime the only way it could really be reduced is if the Home Secretary adjusts the renumeration for officers doing overtime; not impossible of course. Maybe casual overtime paid at normal rate instead of time and a third? The impact on officers on the front line remains to be seen. I think neighbourhood policing is one area that has seen a huge increase in funding and manpower and would (were it not for the politics of neighbourhood policing) be one prime candidate for cutbacks. If the police were willing to make brave decisions at the top level then perhaps they would consider closing some of the hate crime departments or the other risk management departments? These often appear only to exist for appearances sake and I am dubious as to the tangible benefits felt by the public and the organisation from the continued existence. However this would require a genuinely courageous decision- which would no doubt be pointed towards by the tabloid press if any terrible incident happened which was formerly within the scope of the now-closed department- and consequently I would be very surprised if it was done.

I expect cheaper equipment, fewer officers, lower rates of pay in real terms, possible pension reform, little or no replacement of computers, no more force issued mobile phones or PDAs, less vehicles, stations to be sold off, civilian staff made redundant on a large scale, stations closed nearly all week, and diktats from up high to save pennies on a weekly basis.

[kenworthy]

http://news.bbc.co.u...ire/8435862.stm
Police job cuts planned for 2010

The Chief Constable of Derbyshire Police has said job cuts are inevitable in 2010.

[mikeh2000]

We've now got 2 vehicles between 7 safer neighbourhood officers, and one of them will be going soon, which to put it bluntly means I can't patrol my beat now, not all of it anyway, as it's so big, and as such the Policing Pledge has gone out the window as far as being in the community 80% of the time, as well as getting to the priorities within 3 hours.

Overtime for my division has always been hard to get; you have to get an inspector to authorise it, but sometimes there's only one on duty at night, and you can't get hold of them!

[Grumpy275]

This morning I wished to visit the Police Front Counter in Brixham. It is a counter in the "Town Hall" as opposed to a Police Station. At 11:30 it was closed. I have not enquired as to why but I assume it was because they had not got the staff available to man the Office.
These days I am a MOP and I consider I pay my taxes so that I may attend a "Police Station" when I need to. not when the Accountants say it can be opened. Not so many years ago the local Nic would be open 24 - 7. Not anymore. In some places there is a telephone the public can use if the Office is closed, but not in Brixham. Come to think of it I didnt see any Police staff today even in a car or van. Perhaps it is an early Bank Holliday.

[lonestar]

Grumpy275, on Dec 31 2009, 01:33 PM, said:

This morning I wished to visit the Police Front Counter in Brixham. It is a counter in the "Town Hall" as opposed to a Police Station. At 11:30 it was closed. I have not enquired as to why but I assume it was because they had not got the staff available to man the Office.
These days I am a MOP and I consider I pay my taxes so that I may attend a "Police Station" when I need to. not when the Accountants say it can be opened. Not so many years ago the local Nic would be open 24 - 7. Not anymore. In some places there is a telephone the public can use if the Office is closed, but not in Brixham. Come to think of it I didnt see any Police staff today even in a car or van. Perhaps it is an early Bank Holliday.

There are stations in my local area in which the public facing services such as front desks etc are staffed only by volunteers. As such there are no fixed opening times and it is a gamble as to whether or not you will be able to see anyone when you go in. I went three times to give a statement after being asked to nip in by an officer, good job i'm persistent, I suspect most people might not have bothered coming back.

[desmata]

From a policing stand point the value of a fully manned police front desk is limited, i believe. People mainly turn up to repot things, very very rarely is it something that needs to be dealt with immediately and a phone call would suffice. I know people want face to face contact etc but from policing only stand point its easier to invite someone to a station or go to them for things.

As to filling in an on line form and submitting it for crimes, thats was what we used to do for them, now we record a 15 min message and someone else types it in for us. I would say statistically most crimes need no actual police attendance other than reassurance, which i always feel is a little hollow, reassuring someone who has been a victim of crime, as there is little you can reassure them on, other than the fact their crime number will be in the post shortly

[kenworthy]

And this nonsense continues............

Humberside Police may have to lose frontline officers or Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) as it seeks to cut costs, the force's chief has said.
http://news.bbc.co.u...ber/8439792.stm
Was there not mention that front line Officers would not be cut, and that the money given to the Police would remain with inflation?

[jemz]

There are rumours flying around that anyone with 25+ years service in 2012 will be offered early retirement. This may be how they plan on 'reducing officers'
Anyone else heard this or is it just rumour?

[Traffic Bob]

There are all sorts of rumours flying around - I think it is best to just sit tight in our individual Forces until decisions are actually made and announced. The bottom line is just about everything will be considered if it saves money.

The big risk police officer wise has got to be the 30+ scheme - I know some Forces have closed them to new joiners, but I would not be in the least surprised to see the whole scheme terminated.

[ike-fungipoke]

Stopping waste paper would probably cut a huge amount of costs.

[blueb]

jemz, on Jan 5 2010, 02:49 AM, said:

There are rumours flying around that anyone with 25+ years service in 2012 will be offered early retirement. This may be how they plan on 'reducing officers'

But officers can 'retire' at 25 years anyway - the beneits are just not as good as when retiring at 30. Unless they change the regs, the benefits will remain the same so what would be the incentive. With Parliament already saying it is backed up with current legislation, it is not likely to be able to get onto statute on time. But wouldn't they be wanting to keep officers until just after 2012 rather than just before!
Nice rumour though

[kenworthy]

Thin blue line growing thinner in a third of forces

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/c...icle7002474.ece
Police numbers have fallen in almost a third of forces in England and Wales during the past five years, according to a parliamentary report today.

No comment, as i know nothing about it.

[Sect172]

We've got a recruitment freeze, overtime is being squeezed, and cops leaving response for departments/squads aren't being replaced.

In my dept, we have a spot on Inspector who understands OT sometimes is unavoidable, and so will always authorise it. But when he gets squeezed, we might see a different story.

I have night shift colleagues pulled off jobs before 0815 to prevent the 5hr payment, and even not authorised to go to jobs if the dayshift are in sight of booking on.

We also have rumours of early retirement, but I'm not in that bracket by a long shot.

I know there's no unending pot of money available, but it's getting tougher. As always, the cops on the ground make it work, to their own detriment, because the bosses think we don't need as much to do more. The dilemma of a public spirited, genuine cop eh?

[scouse_bobby]

There are massive cost cutting schemes that could be introduced. As someone else suggested, the amount of paper wasted is phenomenal! We'll write a form and then have to submit either that form or a whole new form electronically. Surely, the electronic version is the only version we need!!! Rather than buffet lunches for bosses in meetings (both civilian and police) why don't they go and buy their own lunch or do what we do on the ground and just not have one!! We have a department whose job it is to put appointments in a diary. It is currently staffed by 5 'light duties' officers on over £30k each. Now if these officers attended the incidents they put in the diary I could see the point of having them there, however, they don't leave the office. Therefore, why don't we have 2/3 civilian staff on a 9-5 covering 7 days a week on around £16k each? There is an immediate saving of over £100,000 for 1 BCU. If this was implemented in all 6 BCU's there's an immediate saving of over £600k per year!!!!!! Those light duties officers could then be placed in a role where their policing experience would be of benefit i.e. working in the control room rather than recruiting new civilian staff to fill these posts or as part of a prisoner processing team/file compiling team allowing officers to get back on the streets sooner!!

The police has survived on overtime and the goodwill of officers for too long. Now that bosses have realised this we have been told that any overtime MUST be authorised be an Inspector prior to that overtime being incurred, even if you're trying to deal with an arrest, For example, my BCU overspends by £25k every month on overtime! By cutting this we will save £300,000 in our BCU. Across 6 BCU's that would save the force £1.8 million per year!!!! All this information is available from Police Authority meetings/stakeholder meetings/FOI requests etc etc.

There are departments that exist whose role, it would appear, is to give front line officers grief. Rather than be recruited for that, they could actually assist. Even our burglary teams rarely attend the job when it comes in and it's rare that our robbery team attends a robbery, unless they are ordering uniformed officers around who are of either the same rank or even of higher rank. Mind you, i'm guessing there's been budget cuts in their department for stationery cos i've never seen them get a pen out!!!!

[kenworthy]

Widespread fall in England and Wales police numbers
http://newsvote.bbc..../uk/8484732.stm

The number of police officers has fallen in most forces in England and Wales, Home Office figures have shown.


No matter what they say, it don`t look good.

[WellAdvised]

I have a room full of exhibits on a murder, that arrived at 4pm and I finish at 5pm. When I asked if I should stay on to get on with it, the answer was 'there is no money'.

[sykes]

I can understand the purely financial reason for cutting overtime but common sense is out the window that or our newly promoted sgts is a complete pillock, recenty attended domestic assault, offender arrested etc transported and booked in by colleagues the time 21:03hrs on a late turn, i though couple of hours for a statement no problems, however a whole hisotry of abuse opened up and i didn finsih until 03:00hrs and put OT forms in only to be told i should have stopped taking the statement until inspector authoirised the OT.
Now i have a family life and do not wish to reamin at work any longer than i have to but on ocasions we have no choice, what make sit worse is you then see the desk bound sick,infirm or uslesss setting up teams getting funding for latest wheeze no problems.

I can see all the cuts will be on front line officers be they uniformed response, CID, ARV , RPU or Dogs, already or force seems more intent and geared towards recording offences than proactive prevention

management will not cut the excess from their areas or cut back on the uniformed glorified tea makers who support their comfortable lifetsyle

[kenworthy]

On the same note...........

http://news.bbc.co.u...set/8507653.stm
'Shortfall' sees Avon and Somerset Police miss £59m

http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/blackpoo...jobs.6058199.jp
The budgets for counter terrorism, and the Force Major Investigation Team, which deals with murders, high-level violence and the case of missing Blackpool teenager Paige Chivers, are also under review.

This post has been edited by kenworthy: 10 February 2010 - 10:33 PM

[kenworthy]

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/5000809.Po...in_cash_crisis/
Front line police services could be slashed next year as the force faces a cash crisis.

Up to £6m of cuts and savings has been drawn up by Hampshire Police Authority to protect services over the coming year.


This atrocity continues...