May accused of ‘destroying the police service’
THERESA May was yesterday accused of “destroying” the British police force.
Karen Stephens, secretary of the Police Federation’s National Detective Forum, said the situation was now critical for detectives in the Criminal Investigation Department.
She claimed low pay, low morale and the stress of too much work were deterring young officers from joining the CID. And she laid the blame for the crisis on Mrs May, who was Home Secretary from 2010 to 2016 before becoming Prime Minister.
Since 2010, policing budgets have been slashed and 20,000 officers have disappeared from our streets.
Zoe Billingham, Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary, has described the shortage of detectives as a “national crisis”.
Mrs Stephens said: “Theresa May has destroyed the police service in this country. And we used to be the best police service in the world.”
Gruelling
There are approximately 16,500 detectives in England and Wales – about 5,000 short, she said. And the results of a recent survey among CID ranks make shocking reading, she added.
Almost three quarters of detectives admitted they fail to provide a proper service to crime victims all or most of the time.
Worn down by the impact of budget cuts and an increased work load, 25 per cent of detectives also revealed they suffer mental health problems.
Stress is a huge problem in the CID, Mrs Stephens said.
She told of an officer who could only get through the day by focussing on 15-minute slots until the hours passed and his gruelling shift was over. Inevitably, he suffered a breakdown. Fear of making a mistake and falling foul of the police watchdog is another factor deterring uniform officers from joining the CID, it is claimed.
Mrs Stephens added: “Detectives will have a work load of 15 to 20 cases at any one time. When you are spinning that many plates, you know that at some point one of them is going to be dropped.
“When you are in the CID, the wheel can come off drastically.
“That could well mean an inquiry by the Independent Office for Police Conduct. That is incredibly stressful.”
Mrs Stephens also highlighted the long hours a detective must work.
It has also been reported that unsocial hours allowances have been cut and CID overtime rates slashed.
The Police Federation is taking legal action against the Government for “cheating” officers out of a three per cent pay rise recommended by an independent review body. The National Police Chiefs’ Council is also seeking a legal ban on Whitehall’s plans to slash an extra £420million off their budgets to pay for officers’ pensions.