Cuts leave Yorkshire at risk of riots says Labour

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said policing reforms, to be debated in the Commons today, risked “ripping up” years of good work between Yorkshire constabularies and the communities they protect.

The region emerged largely unscathed from the devastating riots which spread from London to other English towns and cities last month, but Ms Cooper said Government spending cuts would leave forces less equipped if growing social problems sparked more civil unrest.

She spoke exclusively to the Yorkshire Post after South Yorkshire Chief Constable Meredydd Hughes revealed his belief that the region avoided the worst of the trouble thanks to a combination of good planning and good luck.

Yorkshire’s police forces face a combined budget shortfall of £200m and stand to lose 1,500 officers and 2,000 support staff over four years.

Ms Cooper said: “The risks of these cuts for Yorkshire forces are that they will be asking: ‘Have we got enough police officers?’

“I am sure police forces will be very clear about learning the lessons of the riots, but I do worry about whether we will have enough officers in future to respond to problems that arise. It makes Yorkshire more vulnerable.

“The police do a great job and they will do all they can to keep the streets safe, but Yorkshire’s chief constables have been put in an impossible position by the true scale and pace of the cuts.

“The Government is taking risks and, with crime and counter- terrorism, you never know what is around the corner.”

Ms Cooper said introducing elected police commissioners, with the power to hire and fire chief constables, would politicise the service and cost the region £12m – the equivalent of 300 officers.

She said Labour MPs would vote against the plan and accused the Government of rushing other important reforms, such as the closure of the Forensic Science Service (FSS), which has a laboratory in Wetherby, and the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA), which provides training and leadership advice to forces.

She also criticised plans to delete from the national DNA database the genetic profiles of hundreds of thousands of suspects who have been arrested but not convicted, claiming that one-third of suspected rioters in one London borough had been caught thanks to DNA technology.

Ms Cooper said: “When all these things happen at once, and with police feeling demoralised, we have a perfect storm that presents a real risk of rising crime and anti-social behaviour.

“Local communities will pay the price if they cannot get the support they need. Yorkshire’s police forces have been working very hard with communities to bring crime down, but there is a fear that all of that hard work is being ripped up as a result of what the Government is doing.”

West Yorkshire Police dealt with pockets of disorder in Leeds and Huddersfield last month, but the region’s other forces encountered few problems.

Mr Hughes said trouble had been averted in his county because the force already enjoyed a good relationship with the communities it served.

“The good news is we have been lucky in South Yorkshire for many years,” he said. “On the morning when other forces were scrambling around to find community leaders to talk to, community leaders in South Yorkshire already had appointments to talk to our officers.”

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