Rudd U-turn over ‘wicked’ child benefit plan
Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple DESPERATE police are signing up “Miss Marple volunteer detectives” to help solve serious crimes including murders and rapes.
Successful applicants will work alongside Major Crime Unit detectives in Essex where the force faces a £16.8million budget shortfall.
In a recruitment drive, DSI Stephen Jennings asks: “Want to help investigate the most serious crimes in Essex, including murders, attempted murders, stranger rapes and kidnappings?
“Could you help us investigate complex fraud and corruption cases, money laundering and electoral fraud?
“If so, you could be a great fit for our Major Crime Unit or our Serious Economic Crime Unit.”
Forces across the country already rely on unpaid “special constables” to free up regular PCs.
But Essex Police is believed to be among the first to allow volunteers to work on serious crimes. DSI Jennings promises volunteers will “execute warrants, capture evidence and give crime prevention advice for a minimum of 16 hours a month”.
But Essex Labour councillor Michael Lilley blasted the move, saying: “We don’t want people to come in and play Miss Marple, we need properly trained officers. I believe the public deserve better.
“If they report a crime serious enough to warrant a detective, a detective should turn up.
“It just seems like policing on the cheap by the government and it just isn’t right.”
Councillor Dave
Harris added: “I think it is disgraceful. Detectives should be trained to a high standard. It all comes down to cuts, it is disgusting – that thin blue line has become even thinner.
“My residents are sick to their back A “WICKED” benefit cut hitting 15,000 families will be axed today — three weeks before it was to start.
Tory welfare chief Amber Rudd is cancelling an extension of the ‘two-child limit’ that was set to kick in on February 1. The policy would THE FORCE NEEDS CLUE
teeth of calling police and there being no one there to answer.”
And Essex-based solicitor-advocate Laura Austin added: “It’s most concerning that unpaid and possibly untrained volunteers are being sought to work in an area where the highest standards of investigatory techniques are required.”
Essex police has more than 600 fewer officers than in 2012, with just 1.7 officers per 1,000 residents.
The force is preparing to ask for more council tax for the second year running, with households having to stump up an extra £16.8million to help balance its budget.
Last year bills were raised by 7.62% to fund 150 extra police officers.
Roger Hirst, Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex, defended the MICHAEL LILLEY ESSEX LABOUR COUNCILLOR ON VOLUNTEERS stop parents claiming Tax Credits or Universal Credit for more than two kids, a cut of up to £2,780 per child.
Currently, it applies to those children born after the cut took effect in April 2017.
But from February, it was due to Recruitment poster reaches out to volunteer detectives
move saying: “This is not policing on the cheap. Volunteering as a Special Constable is a great way for people to get involved in keeping communities safe.
“Many people have specialist skills who may not want to be full time police officers and this is an ideal way that they can contribute to society and use their expertise to help others.”
A spokeswoman for Essex Police added: “The recruitment offers people a fantastic opportunity to experience life on the front line without making the commitment to joining full-time.”
And Steve Taylor, chair of Essex Police Federation, said: “We are talking about special constables. When you have been as chronically underfunded as we have they are one of the few rays of light.
“It isn’t a question of taking a job over from a regular officer, it’s supporting busy roles regular officers have to do.”
The public deserve better, for serious crime a detective should turn up
Y Vapply retrospectively, hitting children born before the cut. Yet the Work and Pensions Secretary will say the extension “is not right”.
Ms Rudd’s decision comes just as a report by MPs was due to demand an immediate halt to the Tell us what you think: yourvoice@mirror.co.uk extension before it caused “very serious consequences”.
Work and Pensions Committee chairman Frank Field called the plan “wicked and simply inexplicable”.
The U-turn will cost the DWP £250million over three years.