Are Police Jobs at risk with new spending cuts?

I read an article this morning that Police are being told they need to make spending cuts of approximately £500m in the next five years! That is an awfully big cut isn’t it?

There are all sorts of suggestions on hoe this should be done from officers patrolling the streets alone to a cut in overtime. Does this not look like it could lead to a cut in Police Jobs? I mean if one rather than two are to patrol and there is no overtime, surely there will be job cuts?

I know savings need to me made somewhere but things like emergency services and the NHS should surely be left out of this?

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Sounds like a lot. Although I'd guess it could be saved by cutting back office jobs and taking a lot of paperwork out of the average police officer's job.

Interesting that the "Policing pledge" adverts are all over the TV and radio at the moment then this :confused2:

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Police officers are not allowed to walk the streets alone, there are a number of reason for this mainly safety. AS far as overtime is concerned they need to be very careful as the last time they tried to cut costs in the police services a huge number of officers were forced to claim benefits to make ends meet. The police officers have been squeezed so much with reductions in allowances and benefits, that there is a real danger of damage to the ability of the work force. Many of the benefits were introduced to ensure we had healthy able officers on duty with a very low sick rate, the more they cut the more it affects the workforce.

Another inportant point here is that partners of officers get a bum deal, as well as being understanding, they often find it impossible to find work that fits around the shifts and the unpredictable hours they are required to work often at short notice. The overtime is an essential top up to the family income and should be cut with caution. Police families are already struggling without housing, or mortgage assistance( unlike other forces). We need to be very careful here not to keep cutting costs on the ground. They would be better reducing the management costs. They cost more and the organisation within the service is laughable.

Do we want an effective police force or one that is on its knees because it has been cut to the quick?

I think we need to support and reward or police in the same way we do the other forces like the RAF, NAVY and ARMY.

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How can you cut the office jobs and then reduce the paperwork police do? There are a bit too many repetitive forms, but in the case of peperwork if the staff aren't doing it then it means officers will have to.

What they need to do is stop hiring contractors to do these office jobs who are on incredibly good money and instead hire staff who are incidentally paid less to do the job.

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Was just an observation, I don't really know the way the police service operates so can't really comment. I do know how desperately inefficient the NHS can be though! And how overly complicated the Revenue is, so I'd guess there's room to make cuts without affecting the front line services, although it would need an organisational genius to work out how to do it.

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Personally I think that the police force is the one thing that really needs to be looked after, cutting back on labor just puts added stress on officers and spreading them too thinly is not contributing to public safety at all, dont you think? As for the contractor jobs, well this does not even make sense.... they are trying to cut back on costs yet they pay outside companies more to get the job done instead of giving the jobs to people within the department at a lesser rate HUH???

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Exactly

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