Eye-watering increase

I have just received my council tax bill for 2019/20 which includes an eye-watering increase of 13.5 per cent in the Police and Crime Commissioner for Hampshire precept.

This is to provide for an additional 200 officers.

Commendable enough, until you read the accompanying leaflet which provides a breakdown of allocation of resources. Just 16 per cent goes on what most of us would view as proper policing, i.e. Response and Patrol. So, just 32 of the new officers will actually appear on our streets. Like most people I would have expected this to be the biggest percentage and at least 60 per cent of the budget, when in fact it is not even the largest figure. It is actually the third largest. In first place is investigations at 26 per cent. Given how few crimes are now investigated this seems an unreal figure and should be more like five per cent, freeing up 21 per cent for frontline duties. Likewise, while Prevention and Neighbourhoods adds some value, the idea that this requires 17 per cent of resources is nonsense. Two per cent would be more like it. Seven per cent each for Contact Management, Intel and Tasking and Joint Operations seems way too high. Simple reallocation of resources would treble the number of officers on our streets without any increase in the precept. I also note that further focus is to be applied to the various forms of online crime.

With the best will in the world, it is hard to see how a local uniformed police officer could handle this sort of work.

Surly it is better handled by a National Agency with computer specialists doing the work? Andrew Walters Ward Road, Southsea