Police cannot blame cuts for axing bobbies on beat

( says police watchdog )

POLICE chiefs can no longer blame government cuts for slashing routine patrols by bobbies, a watchdog concluded last night.

Red tape rather than budget cuts diverts thousands of officers from frontline duties, with some spending less than half their time on the beat, a wideranging investigation found.

Senior officers have warned bobbies on the beat could vanish if expected budget cuts of up to 40 per cent were made.

Sara Thornton, chairman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, claimed patrols did not prevent crime or make people feel safer, and warned that in future they would not be sent to low-crime areas.

But HM Inspector of Constabulary Zoe Billingham, who led the investigation, described the traditional bobby on the beat as the ‘cornerstone of British policing’ and said they should be protected.

And Chancellor George Osborne’s decision to rule out more cuts to police budgets in November’s spending review meant chief constables could not blame a lack of funds for putting more officers behind desks, she concluded.

‘We don’t think it should be inevitable that the preventative neighbourhood presence should be eroded,’ she said.

‘The [Government] is not cutting so hard and deep and there is an opportunity [for police chiefs] to review their decision.

‘If they prioritise and focus on prevention work, forces are not barred from doing that by lack of money.’

The HMIC report found vital chances to catch terrorists and organised criminals could be missed by the erosion of neighbourhood policing.

It said the decline of beat bobbies is putting the elderly and vulnerable at risk, while failing to stop career criminals from offending. The inspection of all 43 forces in England and Wales warned constabularies risked being isolated from communities.

Inspectors found beat officers are regularly ordered to sit on reception desks, book in prisoners and guard crime scenes. They found local officers in Lincolnshire spent less than half their time on the beat, while police from other forces admitted they devoted only half their time to their patch.

Communities in Essex were plagued by a rise in anti-social behaviour after the force decided to prioritise other investigations, HMIC said.

And in London hundreds of beat officers are being taken off patrols each month to deal with protests and major events.

Meanwhile, police community support officers, rather than police officers, are increasingly being sent to investigate crimes such as shoplifting.

Miss Billingham said: ‘Frontline neighbourhood police officers have told us repeatedly they are being pulled from important preventative work in communities to fulfil other duties, like guarding crime scenes, spending time in stations investigating crimes or staffing police station front counters.

‘Losing our eyes and ears in the community is only likely to hamper good performance in preventing crime.

‘There is a risk that the police service is sleepwalking to a return to their old model of policing where police are isolated from communities.

‘That’s why we are sounding this alarm bell now. Neighbourhood policing is a cornerstone of the British policing model and we can’t afford to lose it.’

A study last year found only 32 per cent of people saw bobbies on the beat at least once a week in 2013-14, compared with 40 per cent in 2010-11.

The number of police officers and PCSOs has fallen from 161,000 to 140,000 since 2010.

‘Sounding the alarm bell’