CASE STUDY
POLICE “poster girl” Laura Beal quit the service over “dangerous and damaging” cuts, despite appearing in a force recruitment campaign.
Ms Beal was with Devon and Cornwall Police for 13 years before saying she felt it was “impossible to do her job to the best of her ability”.
Aged 19 she had followed her father into policing in 2004. She appeared on “you matter, we care” posters to promote women in the police force. But Ms Beal later quit after feeling “embarrassed at the way everyone is being treated”.
In a resignation letter she made public, she said: “Staff are not coping and are suffering because there is no one looking out for them.
“Please take it from someone who has been personally affected and has been so low she has wondered what the point of it all is and only through her friends and family been able to see that there is more to life than policing.
“Front-line response is where you need to focus your time and money. This is where the buck stops.”
She said she had minimal help on her Mid Devon patch. “I am expected to go on patrol covering Mid-Devon with one other officer most days – and this is meant to be adequate staffing and safe.
“I could see the job I loved and the people I respect get ruined because of an organisation that puts its employees last.”