Title

Police authorities this week joined PM Gordon Brown in urging councils to help protect frontline law enforcement, amid fears some neighbourhoods are vulnerable to rising crime if public spending cuts are enforced. Speaking on 1 March, Mr Brown urged forces to keep officers on the beat, despite the temptation to cut patrols during what promised to be a period of public sector austerity over the next five years. As the major parties crank up their general election campaigns, Mr Brown effectively intervened in what is otherwise a local authority matter – police budgets – and said it was not ‘acceptable for police forces to miss a Home Office target of having PCs spend four-fifths of their time on patrol. ‘Police funding in this country has always – and rightly – been part-national and part-local,' Mr Brown said. ‘So my challenge to local authorities around the country is to match our commitment to protect frontline policing – or else explain to their communities why they are not prepared to do so.' Responding, APA chairman, Rob Garnham, said the prime minister had ‘thrown down the gauntlet to police authorities'. ‘We welcome this challenge, which police authorities will mirror through a commitment to seeing service levels to local communities maintained, even under difficult financial pressures,' he said. This commitment, Mr Garnham said, would include ‘engaging' with local authorities to ensure services were maintained. While councils do not directly provide or control policing services, they have recently been significant contributors to community support officer (CSO) coffers through voluntary ‘top ups' to policing budgets. However, as council finances have tightened, many authorities have withdrawn that voluntary funding. Districts in Lincolnshire were recently vilified for axing CSO budgets, thereby heaping pressure on Lincolnshire CC to retain its support for the local programme. The county reduced its CSO support slightly, but retained sufficient funds to sustain current CSO numbers in the area.

Title

WHITEHALL

Brown urges funding protection for police

SUBSCRIBE TO CONTINUE READING