Thinnest blue line since ‘70s
DERBYSHIRE’S top police officer has warned that the force will have to stop chasing some paedophiles and child predators if planned cuts go ahead.
Chief Constable Peter Goodman has said the force is famous for its work in uncovering clandestine child exploitation – but if cuts continue this will no longer be possible.
He added that the need to cut £2.5 million this year and £6.2 million next year means 124 officers will have to be let go. This will bring the total number of officers in the force down to under 1,600 – the lowest it has been since the 1970s.
Mr Goodman has previously revealed he wanted 50 additional officers on the beat to help fight crime – but he said this is looking increasingly unlikely.
This news comes as the government announced it wants local forces to increase the amount they contribute to officers’ pensions.
Mr Goodman said: “I think it is important that the public of Derbyshire know the strain we are under, and just how hard we are trying.
“Derbyshire Police is famous for being the first force in the country to properly address child sexual exploitation and working to detect cyber crimes. But with 124 fewer officers Chief Constable Peter Goodman (above right) wanted 50 extra officers on the beat to help fight crime.
by 2020-2021, we are not going to be able to do that anymore.
“We think that we have a deficit of around four million to cut back on already, and we are not the worst affected. There are forces that need to cut another £12 million to just stay afloat. The police force is on the edge.” He outlined the level of cuts the force is dealing with: “We face more significant cuts which will in effect mean we cut an extra 124 officers, taking us to fewer than 1,600.
“That takes us back to the 1970s where all that we did was respond to calls of service. We are facing a 20th century police force if these cuts go ahead. Policing will be in the worst state it has ever been in.”
Mr Goodman said: “We have plans to put around 45-50 new officers into neighbourhood teams. But that will be gone. We are going to have to think about how to cut back significantly in other areas, too.
“We have 2,000 phone calls to the service per day and we respond to around 700. More than half these are dealt with over the phone. We only go out to things that are really important.”
There have been calls for misogyny to be branded as a hate crime and treated as such by police. Mr Goodman said: “It depends on the severity of the case. For example, if someone was wolf-whistling at a woman on the road, that is not a police matter.
“But if they were doing it every day, making her feel vulnerable and unsafe, then we would look into it.
“We are going to have to make choices about what to go to – and we don’t want to have to do that.”
Tracking online crimes that often go unnoticed by the public is a difficult and costly task, Mr Goodman said. “Police can track those people, –but it becomes more and more difficult as we move towards 5G services and stronger encryption.
“That takes a lot of investment in technology – and it costs a lot of money.”