South Yorkshire Police Federation have warned that a return to austerity in the autumn budget, will “break policing.”
Federation Chair, Steve Kent, said, “If I had a meeting with Rishi Sunak, I’d tell him that policing is broken, our officers are absolutely broken. I’d say that we’re only just getting back to where we were twelve years ago.
“We’ve had 10 years of austerity which has absolutely broken policing. If we go back to austerity, I don’t think it will be repairable. We will start seeing a mass exodus of police officers who can’t cope, and we are really on the cusp of a dangerous precipice. He needs to really grow funding in policing and certainly not cut it.”
The budget, which is set to be released on November 28, will be the first fund to be determined by the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt.
While it’s been reported that fighting crime is one of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s top priorities, South Yorkshire Police Federation still worries that the newly set budget is going to include spending cuts.
In his message to the Prime Minister, Chair Ken, added: “I’d also tell him we have to reduce the target culture within policing and that the bureaucracy has to stop. We have to be measured as a police service on one thing and one thing alone, and that is victim care.
“That is all that matters, not how many arrests, because they don’t always paint a full picture. Somebody may not end up going to court, they may be released because of insufficient evidence, it doesn’t mean anything. What we need to do is change the red-line attitude of policing. We need to calm it down and focus on letting cops go out, do quality work, take their time, and get it right the first time.”
