Mark Burns-Williamson: Police forces can only endure so many cutbacks

It stated that we “cannot further afford cuts to be blindly enforced without due diligence in terms of assessing how councils will cope”.

“At all times, one simple question must be asked: will this make it more or less likely that vulnerable people will fall through holes in the safety nets that are supposed to catch them?”

While that question applied to the most vulnerable and those at risk being looked after by local authorities, the same principles could and should be applied to the police forces facing the most severe cuts in recent history. How will police forces continue to cope in such circumstances?

We in West Yorkshire are facing nearly 40 per cent of cuts to our budget by 2016/17 and 2015 brings its own set of challenges with budgets stretched ever tighter and difficult decisions on how to best spread resources having to be taken.

The police service is responsible for protecting the most vulnerable, with the commissioning of victims’ services being passed to Police and Crime Commissioners as of April 1, this against the backdrop of an unfair funding formula that affects West Yorkshire disproportionately, because unlike other police forces that may not face similar challenges, we rely on an 80 per cent Government funding allocation.

That means that when the Government insists on moving some of our main funding to other organisations and places, such as the Independent Police Complaints Commission and money for the Police Special Grant which supports police forces facing unplanned and unexpected additional pressures which would include costs of demonstrations such as the ones by the English Defence League, our budget suffers significantly.

I asked for a refund of £759,000 from the Police Special Grant for an EDL demonstration and it was refused, so that special grant has not helped us in our time of need, despite West Yorkshire being one of the biggest contributors.

We suffer and have to take yet more difficult decisions around where our limited money goes.

The Government has to recognise that continually taking money away from a resource as crucial as policing is having long lasting implications and needs to be reconsidered.

West Yorkshire has already lost around 2,000 frontline officers and staff since the start of cuts in 2010/11 and more will follow, compromising our ability to deliver community safety.

A recent College of Policing report, titled Estimating Demand on the Police Service, shows the increasing demand being put on dedicated officers and staff while budgets continually decrease, the significant cuts imposed by 
Government simply fail to recognise the increasing complexity and pressures faced.

While it is reassuring that overall crime has reduced in West Yorkshire, police officers are being required to deal with more complex crimes associated with child sexual exploitation, public protection, cyber crime, human trafficking and overall safeguarding to name but a few.

This means more pressure put on officers and communities put at more risk, with one police officer for every 445 members of the public in 2014 nationally, an increase of 50 people per officer since 2010.

The Home Office police grant figures mean that West Yorkshire Police has to find more than £33.8m in savings this year, on top of the £103m already made in the last three years, with a projection of at least a 40 per cent budget cut overall by the end of the next spending review.

We will continue to strive to do all we can to make the public feel safer, work ever closer with our partners and consulting with communities across West Yorkshire to understand their needs and concerns and make sure their priorities are reflected in the Police and Crime Plan.

But there are only so many efficiencies that the police force can make, with officer and staff numbers continually dropping as the Government keeps on changing the goalposts every year, potentially putting communities at more risk.

So at all times, that same question, more imperative than ever before, needs to be asked with regard to the police service: Will these level of cuts make it more or less likely that vulnerable people will fall through holes in the safety nets that are supposed to catch them?

I will do all I can with partners to stop this happening, but the Government has to take responsibility for penalising forces like West Yorkshire already struggling with the immense burden of cuts.

We have a collective responsibility locally and nationally to ensure we are protecting those who need us the most.

Mark Burns-Williamson is West Yorkshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner.