Lincolnshire Police and Crime Commissioner says it’s ‘ludicrous’ for Government to put demands on force without additional investment
Lincolnshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner says it is ‘ludicrous’ for the Government to put more demands on the county’s force without stumping up additional investment.
Marc Jones is supporting the country’s senior police chiefs after they called for more money to be given to cash-strapped forces in the Government’s upcoming spending review. They argue this is needed if they are going to be able to deliver on the goal of cutting crime.
Metropolitan Police chief, Sir Mark Rowley, along with five other leading officers, had put out a plea for more money and reform in order to deliver on promises to cut serious crime and boost neighbourhood policing.
Lincolnshire Police is the worst funded in the country and was earlier this year looking likely to cut a total of 400 jobs - including frontline officers - to fill a £14million blackhole but this has been delayed after Mr Jones won an additional £5.7million.
Mr Jones said he ‘fully endorsed’ the views expressed by police chiefs last week.
He added: “The challenges facing modern policing are growing, becoming more complex and require additional resource and expertise to properly investigate.
“It is true that the expectations placed upon policing by successive Governments are only adding to that burden. We all want to provide safe and secure communities free from crime, anti-social behaviour and online threats but inevitably that requires more and more investment.
“It is ludicrous to expect law enforcement to deliver the expanding demands of neighbourhood policing, early prisoner release and the many other issues placed at their door without additional funding.
“While I understand these issues effect all forces across England and Wales the difficulties this presents in Lincolnshire are even more acute.
“Lincolnshire Police is under pressure from all sides. The Government is making demands, the policing inspectorate is making demands, everyone accepts we are the lowest funded force in the country and yet still nothing has been done to address this.
“The only way to resolve this is to rework the funding formula otherwise any additional money will still be distributed in a way that disadvantages our county even more.
“It is desperately disappointing for all the hard working staff dedicated to keeping our streets safe as well as for the communities across the county who are unfairly forced to accept fewer officers per head than anywhere else in the UK.”
Earlier this year, Mr Jones had won the right for a judicial review into how the government applied the formula for the coming financial year, starting on April 1.
He later agreed to suspend the High Court action against the Home Office to concentrate on the constructive and positive discussions regarding the long term funding of Lincolnshire Police.
