Danger as thin blue line fades

OUTSIDE Westminster, crime soars, residents’ fears grow and the ability of police to do their job is hampered. Inside the bubble, politicians who little more than a year ago pledged to be tough on law and order now insist front-line services can be protected despite swingeing budget cuts. Confronted with the evidence, the Home Office remains in a state of denial that matches that of the most hardened criminal.

Just like a suspect who won’t buckle under questioning, the Government sticks to its story when everyone else can see through it. It is simply not possible to slash police budgets without threatening public safety. This region has already seen grim evidence of this, with crime rates rising significantly almost everywhere in the first five months of the year. In North Yorkshire, the results are particularly alarming, with crime up by nearly a sixth.

Ministers cannot say they were not warned. It was only last month that this newspaper revealed the concerns of Meredydd Hughes, Chief Constable of South Yorkshire, that shrinking forces, rising unemployment and lax sentencing would increase crime. Now his vision is becoming a nightmare reality.

The coalition claimed its cuts would affect “back office” functions but, with Yorkshire’s four police forces preparing to shed more than 2,000 posts this year, the effect is being felt on the frontline. In many cases vital services, such as child protection, rely on back office work for them to be carried out properly. Meanwhile a reduction in support staff does not mean that their work magically disappears; rather the responsibility for it is transferred, piling more pressure on uniformed officers who are already hamstrung by paperwork.

This is not just unsafe, but unfair. Yorkshire forces have long been taking steps to save money, from co-operating on region-wide issues like the fight against drugs to bulk-ordering equipment at a discount. Yet now police, and by extension citizens, suffer because the last decade has seen reckless behaviour in the City, misguided spending by the previous government and ill-thought out cuts by the current administration. Faced with overwhelming evidence, it is time Ministers owned up to what they have done wrong.