Neighbourhood police officers are becoming an "endangered species" because of swingeing government cuts, the Police Federation of England and Wales has warned.
A survey of the 43 police forces in England and Wales found that 77 per cent had either scrapped, reduced or merged neighbourhood teams over the last five years.
The police service has lost more than 16,600, or 12 per cent, of its officers since 2010 – effectively scrapping the equivalent of more than twice the number of officers in the whole of Wales. Police staff numbers have also dropped by 20 per cent as forces contend with Home Office cuts to their budgets.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The Police Federation, which represents officers up to the rank of chief inspector, says the cuts are sounding the death knell for the traditional bobby on the beat.
Speaking to the Federation's annual conference in Bournemouth, chairman Steve White is expected to say that neighbourhood policing is "just one of the endangered species in the new streamlined barren policing landscape".
The results, he will warn, could be an increase in crime rates and a disconnect between officers and the communities they serve.
Nearly half the forces in the country have merged their neighbourhood policing teams with emergency response teams or other departments, reports PoliticsHome. Only two forces – Cheshire and City of London – said they had increased numbers of neighbourhood officers.
"Cuts really do have consequences and we see them every day. We are down to the bone and having to decide – neighbourhood policing or 999 calls?" White will say.
Policing minister Mike Penning said the deployment of neighbourhood police teams were an operational matter for forces, but insisted that the reduction in crime nationwide showed there was no "simple link between officer numbers and crime levels".
Home Secretary Theresa May is expected to give a keynote speech at the conference later today, her first since being reappointed in the post.
-
The ethics behind facial recognition vans and policingThe Explainer The government is rolling out more live facial recognition technology across England
-
The Met police's stop and search overhaulThe Explainer More than 8,500 Londoners have helped put together a new charter for the controversial practice
-
NCHIs: the controversy over non-crime hate incidentsThe Explainer Is the policing of non-crime hate incidents an Orwellian outrage or an essential tool of modern law enforcement?
-
The new powers to stop stalking in the UKThe Explainer Updated guidance could help protect more victims, but public is losing trust in police and battered criminal justice system
-
'Warriors' vs 'guardians': the pitfalls of police recruit training in the USIN DEPTH American police training fails to keep pace with the increasingly complex realities that today's officers face
-
Derek Chauvin, killer of George Floyd, reportedly stabbed in prisonSpeed Read Chauvin was convicted of Floyd's murder in 2021
-
Nicola Bulley: police under fire for releasing personal informationSpeed Read Disclosure was 'avoidable and unnecessary' and led to 'breakdown of public confidence', College of Policing finds
-
Protest politics: when should police intervene?Talking Point Calls for law change after shouts of 'jihad' on UK streets found not to be terrorism or public order offences
