Neighbourhood policing cuts are jeopardising community safety

NEIGHBOURHOOD policing is taking a hit in Northumbria due to police cuts and the Force’s ability to protect people from violence and extremism is being jeopardised as a result, the local Federation has warned.

The force has lost more than 900 officers since the austerity programme began in 2009 and teams of neighbourhood officers have shrunk.

Jim Gray, Chairman of Northumbria Police Federation, said: “As someone who has served in neighbourhood teams at Constable, Sergeant and Inspector ranks, I have seen first hand that if you are not out there engaging with communities, then you’re not going to build bridges, you’re not going to form trust and relationships with communities, and therefore you won’t be able to gather key information and intelligence.

“It’s not complicated, this is not rocket science! If we don’t have people there to engage with communities, we cannot build trust and confidence and we cannot gather information and intelligence and, therefore, our ability to keep communities safe is significantly dimished. Fact!”.

Jim was speaking after one of the UK’s senior national counter-terrorism coordinator, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, said funding cuts for local policing is endangering national security.

He told The Guardian newspaper that two decades of progress in neighbourhood policing were at risk and that withdrawing police on the ground would mean losing the relationships and trust that yield crucial intelligence.

Jim added: “He is absolutely spot on. If you don’t have officers out there in communities, we can’t serve people as well and we can’t protect them as well. You must actively establish and maintain those lines of communication. If they’re not there, we simply can’t serve and protect our communities as effectively.”

In Northumbria, a renewed focus on safeguarding is also having an impact on neighbourhood teams as well as 24/7 Response Policing.

Jim added: “Our increasing focus on safeguarding is very laudable. But my suspicion is that we seem to be doing the job of other agencies, such as social services.

“As a Police Service, we never seem to say ‘no’. We always say we’ll take on more and more, but we are still doing that when we have far fewer resources and capability. The resources which we are placing in ‘safeguarding’ are increasing and I’m being told that numbers within 24/7 Response and Neighbourhoods are paying the price in terms of numbers of officers.

“Place that in the context that, due to the continuing lack of appropriate support from central government, our overall police numbers in Northumbria will again fall next year, we really must ask ourselves, ‘What do we want us to be as a police service, especially in times when we’ve got far fewer police resources, far fewer police staff, and far less money?

“We can’t just keep trying to do everything because there is a real cost in terms of the service we can provide our communities and there is a real human cost in terms of the impact upon individual Police Officers.

“What do we actually want us to be? Realistically, do we think we can continue to be all things to all people? Do we really have the capacity and capability to do that? Or do we actually say we just can’t do all of this all of the time with ever decreasing officer numbers and resources?