Historic sex abuse takes up third of force time
Police overwhelmed by rise in child exploitation cases
The force have had to make major financial savings in recent years. Chief Constable Dee Collins of West Yorkshire Police.
A THIRD of all West Yorkshire Police investigations now involve non-recent child sexual exploitation cases, according to a briefing paper detailing the acute pressures now facing the force. The paper, called Demanding
Times, highlights a series of increasing demands on the service including a dramatic rise in the number of reported cases of child sexual exploitation which surged by 150 per cent between 2013 and 2016.
The analysis, presented to local MPs, warns the force’s ability to tackle crime and protect the most vulnerable in society is under serious threat unless the Government urgently provides more money for the service.
It details a financial plight allied to a growth in demand swamping a depleted workforce, which is reporting increasing levels of sickness.
Last night the Home Office rejected the local analysis with a spokesman saying decisions should be “based on evidence rather than assertion” but West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Mark BurnsWilliamson said there had been cross-party support for more funding when he presented the briefing to MPs.
The analysis highlights a 35 per cent reduction in funding since 2010, resulting in almost 1,400 fewer staff.
It says on top of £140m savings already delivered, forecasts predict £13m recurrent savings will need to be made.
The paper goes on to illustrate the impact on policing, including a five per cent fall in arrests, a 24 per cent drop in stop and search, and the number of fixed penalty notices for speeding and mobile phone usage, cited as key causes of accidents, falling by 15 per cent.
There has also been significant decline in response times from 2013/14 when the force attended 90.9 per cent of emergency calls within 15 minutes and 90 per cent of all priority calls within 60 minutes to, so far in 2017/18, just below 80 per cent and just over 70 per cent respectively.
Halifax Labour MP Holly Lynch, who attended the meeting with the PCC in Westminster, said neighbourhood policing had reduced by 50 per cent in Calderdale over the last year which was reflected by around half of all constituency concerns now revolving around criminality and public safety.
Mr Burns-Williamson said: “I reiterate that the price we will pay for an under-resourced police service in West Yorkshire is too high.
“I warned the region’s fel- low politicians at our meeting in Westminster and was reassured that they share my concerns and will join me in making the case for a fairer funding deal for West Yorkshire in the 2018/19 police settlement.”
Chief Constable Dee Collins of West Yorkshire Police, said: “The force, along with many of our partners, have had to make major financial savings in recent years and we still face the significant challenge of reducing our budget by nearly £13m over the next three years, if we are to continue recruiting new officers to replace those who leave.”
ALL THOSE working on the police frontline will be bemused by the exchanges at Prime Minister’s Questions between Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn which, not for the first time, were somewhat divorced from reality. For, while Mrs May lauded the fall in crime as the Opposition leader criticised spending cuts, this ritual trading of statistics missed a crucial point – how demands on the police are changing by the day.
This is borne out by the Demanding Times document that has been published by West Yorkshire Police to highlight the scale of these contemporary challenges and why policing policy is, in fact, far more nuanced. Historic cases involving child sexual exploitation and abuse account for more than one third of the force’s investigations – and the very complexity of such cases is proving to be a major drain on resources.
As a result of this, one in five cases now involve safeguarding issues and, in particular, calls about the whereabouts of vulnerable people from the very elderly who might be afflicted with dementia to young children who have gone missing. Again, each case requires a prompt response so those concerned don’t come to further harm.
Yet, with cyber-crime proving to be another formidable challenge, the Government – as the primary funder of police forces – is either going to have to make additional resources available or start to list those crimes, and cases, that it no longer deems to be urgent.
Elected crime commissioners only have so many financial levers at their disposal as Mark Burns-Williamson pointed out earlier this week when he said that the West Yorkshire force’s financial reserves of £95m will be spent within five years if this fund, supposedly for unforeseen emergencies, continues to be used to subsidise day-to-day policing at a time when public patrols are already falling considerably short of the law-abiding public’s expectations. Something has to give, a point that neither Mrs May or Mr Corbyn was prepared to concede.