CUTS BEAT COPS
MPs warn police are becoming ‘irrelevant’ in neighbourhoods
POLICE officers are at risk of becoming “irrelevant” as beat bobbies disappear due to Tory cuts, MPs warn today.
Forces are “struggling to cope” with rising levels of crime, especially online, the Commons Home Affairs Committee said in a report.
Data suggests forces have lost a fifth of their neighbourhood policing capacity on average since 2010. The report said: “It is absolutely vital that this cornerstone of policing is reaffirmed, to ensure trust and legitimacy is maintained. This is particularly impor- tant in communities in which distrust of the police is rife.”
Few online fraud cases are ever investigated, forces are “woefully under-resourced” to tackle online child sex abuse and adoption of new technology is a “complete and utter mess”, the report said.
Committee chair and Labour MP Yvette Cooper said: “Policing urgently needs more money.”
It comes as Merseyside Police Commissioner Jane Kennedy warned forces could go bust after her force was told by the Treasury to pay out £11million extra a year in pension contributions.