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The Home Office will come under strong pressure to protect frontline policing as the public spending cuts take hold, after it emerged just one in 10 officers are ‘visible and available' to the public at any one time. A detailed study of the use of police resources, published by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary on 20 July, claims that despite decades of police budget increases, forces often do not use their resources sensibly, and are possibly under-resourced at vital stages of the week. The study reveals, for example, that ‘more police are available to the public on a Monday morning than during those times when the public would expect a heavier police presence – for example, Friday and Saturday nights'. The purpose of the HMIC study is to raise key issues about frontline policing, and the use of forces' resources, in advance of expected 25% budget cuts across the UK. Watchdogs suggest police forces could save £1bn. The study asks: ‘With year-on-year increases to their budgets for the last 40 years, if we still have only 11% availability of police, what will we be left after significant budget cuts?' It suggests compulsory redundancies might be required to help forces meet their budget cuts, and warns ‘in this scenario, it would be very hard to maintain even the current level of availability [of frontline police]'. Home Office sources said ministers and senior officials were committed to protecting, as far as possible, frontline policing services as they prepared to publish spending plans which would force savings on all public bodies. One senior source told The MJ: ‘The HMIC report highlights what a difficult task it will be to protect all frontline [policing] services. But everybody is working hard to ensure that day-to-day services, such as bobbies on the beat, are not disrupted. There are "back office" savings to be made.'

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WHITEHALL

Fears over police strength in run-up to cutbacks

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