Government Needs To Invest More In Policing As There Are ‘No Extra Police Officers’

The Government needs to invest in policing to ensure there is a well-resourced service that can quell disorder when it flares up, Hampshire Police Federation Chair Zoë Wakefield has said.

Zoë was speaking after Nick Smart, President of the Superintendents’ Association, told its annual conference that  “the police service has been financially drowning for more than a decade” and there are “no extra police officers” to deal with the relentless demands of policing.

Mr Smart told Police Minister Diana Johnson at the conference: “When the recent disorder took place, public-order-trained officers were mobilised across the country, mutual aid agreements were invoked, and we responded well. No one will forget the images of police officers, wearing protective equipment, lined up with riot shields and facing waves of relentless violence and disorder.

“The Prime Minister, when describing these officers, referred to the capability as a ‘standing army of specialist public duty officers’. Let’s be clear. There were never any ‘extra’ police officers. There was no standing army of officers, waiting and ready on the sidelines. There is no ‘box of riot cops’ to break out.”

Zoë said: “I don’t know how much it cost nationally in overtime for us to quell those riots over the summer. But when I think about Hampshire, pretty much everyone was put on 12-hour working and had their rest days cancelled. We had officers coming into Hampshire on mutual aid and we sent officers out of Hampshire, and I presume that’s the same for most forces.

“I wonder what that overtime bill was and how that equates to how many police officers could have been recruited for that same amount of money. The Government needs to invest in policing to ensure that we have a well-resourced police service that can quell disorder, without us having to resort to cancelling rest days.

“We had some officers who were working six 12-hour shifts in a row. That’s two weeks’ work in the space of six days. People were absolutely shattered. There’s always going to be a performance dip when people are that tired and that exhausted, so it’s not the best way to do policing. More Government investment is really needed.”