LETTER: The population is going up - the number of officers down

A disappearing species in danger of extinction and now rarely reported as seen in Sussex.

I acquired figures through a FoI request regarding the last ‘extra’ fiver that we paid in 2015 following the PCC request.

Not like me, but I mislaid that information, from memory just 2,900 people responded, 1,650 wanted to pay and, 1,250 did not. At a guess 500,000 individuals could have responded. Like the majority of citizens, but unlike many big companies, some millionaires, non-dom property owners and the off-shore bank account holders, I pay all of my tax dues, etc, from which the Government apart from their own pay rises, allocates to each Police Service the core grant for Policing. As in previous years that grant was cut, this year by £871,000.

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So each year our taxes by various methods increase, the Government grants decrease, Council tax increases and now, yet again, we are being asked to contribute ‘around’ another £5, to invest in 100 new officers and staff.

First question, how many of the 100 will be warranted uniformed officers?

The four-year Local Policing Model launched in 2015 will see 500 Officer posts and 500 other staff cut from the workforce by 2020. Dividing that up equally, 100 Officers and 100 others each year.

Why not just cut 400 officer posts, because er, you get to keep 100 officers, not individuals, but the post of officer.

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My eyesight is changing, but I can still see the mirrors through the smoke.

Of course I’m probably unable to understand the complexities, or am I supposed to be impressed by highfalutin titles such as, Community Priority Crime Teams, Expert Yoof Teams and Public Protection Investigators, just a load of PC terms, whoops, mustn’t use PC too often, not enough to go round.

Those officers that have face to face contact with the public are trying to do a good job with limited numbers under difficult circumstances, the newspaper article made this plain.

Failures are usually the fault of the system not the individual officer.

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Policies regarding non-attendance to certain categories of incident come from ‘above’ not at PC [done it again] level and are politically driven.

The facts are, a rapidly increasing population and an ever reducing number of Police Officers.

PCC’s should be attacking Government cuts not using a begging bowl.

Paul Woolmer

Wannock Drive

Polegate

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