Forces may need to ‘prioritise’ incidents

Police forces may be forced to “prioritise” incidents in the event of a no-deal Brexit, with officers possibly drafted in from neighbouring constabularies to help in the worst affected areas, a chief constable has warned.

Kent and Hampshire have already made requests for the end of this month when the country is due to leave the EU.

During a briefing to journalists yesterday afternoon about preparations for Brexit, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead, Chief Constable Charlie Hall, said: “If we get into a significant movement of resources across the country, yes that will have some impact back on to forces.”

He continued: “A really significant movement of resource across the country would mean forces have to prioritise threat and risk, they may have to look at some functions that are normally undertaken and reduce what is provided in order to keep running key services.”

The warning came as Deputy Assistant Commissioner Richard Martin urged Parliament to press ahead with plans to deal with the potential loss of the European Arrest Warrant.

He said a no-deal Brexit could result in significant problems when attempting to arrest a foreign suspect.

He said: “What you could end up with is an officer being in the unenviable position where somebody in front of them is wanted for burglary in France, let’s say, but can’t do anything about it unless they have other grounds to detain that person.

“We are trying to close that loophole so that we can in future arrest that person.”

Mr Hall also said there was an increase in MPs asking for security advice from the Parliamentary Liaison and Investigation Team.

He said: “We saw through September a couple of periods where abuse being received by MPs did spike – not to the level that was seen in March/April time, but nonetheless there was an increase.

“The spikes we saw were around the second and the fourth week in September.

“We recognise there are people on different sides of this debate, we know some of that debate is quite strong, but we ask people when those debates take place that they are respectful and mindful of the impact that has on others.”