Region's police cut 208 officers

10:09am Wednesday 23rd July 2008

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THERE were 208 fewer police on patrol across three of the region’s force areas last year, according to Government figures.

Union officials claim there is a North-South divide in recruitment after it was revealed that North Yorkshire Police and Durham Police lost the services of the highest number of officers of any force in England and Wales.

Home Office figures show that across the 43 force areas, 24 experienced a fall in the number of serving officers.

But North Yorkshire was worst hit, with 89 fewer officers (down 5.4 per cent), followed by Durham, with 73 fewer (down 4.3 per cent) during the 12 months to March.

Cleveland Police completed the period with 47 fewer officers (down 2.7 per cent) while only one of the region’s forces, Northumbria, increased its recruitment over the year – employing one extra officer.

“This doesn’t surprise me,”

said Mal Taylor, secretary of the North Yorkshire branch of the Police Federation.

“In the North-East, we have two neighbouring forces at the bottom of the table. But down south, Essex Police are getting 600 more officers over the next three years.

“There seems to be a disparity across the country and County Durham and North Yorkshire are right at the bottom.”

In total, the number of police officers across England and Wales dipped fractionally last year, with 141,859 fulltime equivalent officers at the end of March – down 33 on the previous year.

Under an old measure, which fails to take account of those on career breaks or parental leave, there was a decrease of 304 officers year-onyear to 139,728.

An additional 2,600 officers are employed by British Transport Police, while the number of full-time equivalent community support officers rose more than 17 per cent in the year to 15,800.

The Durham and North Yorkshire forces have struggled financially in the past few years. The Durham force had to raise its share of the council tax precept by 34 per cent last year, and recently needed a one-off payment of £500,000 from Durham County Council to maintain services.

North Yorkshire introduced a recruitment freeze to save money, but a force spokeswoman said that, while the overall number of staff had fallen, the amount of frontline officers had not.

She said: “Recruitment of all staff was suspended. It is inevitable that some officers will have moved on or retired during this time.

“This may involve using staff rather than police officers in back office jobs, but it must be stressed that frontline police officer numbers remain ring-fenced and will not be reduced.

“The latest figures show that detections have risen while crime in North Yorkshire has fallen for the fourth year running and is now the lowest anywhere in England.”

Nationally, the Police Federation has launched the Communities Need Constables campaign, in protest against the trend for replacing trained police with civilian staff, such as police community police officers (PCSOs).

“We fight hard to retain police numbers,” said Mr Taylor.

“We suffered cuts in 2001, and we saw an increase in assaults on police officers. That is not a situation we would like to repeat.

“We have more PCSOs, but crime doesn’t stop at 10pm, and, after that time, it is only fully-warranted police officers on patrol.”

Earlier this month, Durham Police warned that the force faced “continuing challenges”

over the coming years to balance the books.

The area’s union branch chairman, Andy Metcalfe, said last night: “Any drop in the number of police officers is concerning. Police in County Durham and North Yorkshire have to cover a large area so any reduction hits us hard.”

Home Office Minister Tony McNulty said: “Getting officers out on the streets dealing with the issues that concern local people is what’s important.

“Additional police staff are freeing officers to return to the frontline, with growing numbers of specialist staff working in roles such as licensing of firearms and explosives, carrying out criminal records checks and front office duties.

“Police officer numbers remain historically high. There have been an additional 14,000 police officers recruited since 1997, and a 27 per cent increase in police personnel, which at 233,000 are at a record high.”