Police forces will struggle to meet the demands placed upon them unless the Government comes up with a long-term funding deal which includes improved pay and conditions for officers, according to Staffordshire Police Federation.
Branch secretary Chris Rodger warned there was little chance of improvement until key issues facing policing were acknowledged and addressed.
Chris said increasing demands on the police had made workloads almost impossible and were not being helped by the imposition of new bureaucratic processes which meant officers often felt overwhelmed by paperwork.
He said officer numbers were still a huge issue that was not being properly tackled by the Police Uplift Programme which would still mean fewer officers in 2023 than there were in 2012.
Chris was speaking in response to a new report from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) which found most victims of burglary, robbery and theft “aren’t getting the justice they deserve” from overstretched police forces.
He said: “The findings of the report are obviously very worrying but no one should be surprised that years and years of cutbacks have left policing under-resourced and struggling to meet the ever-increasing demands.
“We have issued regular warnings about the impact funding cuts were having on policing but by and large the red flags we have raised have been ignored.
“It is now time for the Government to introduce a long-term, sustainable funding settlement so chief constables and police and crime commissioners can start to plan ahead.”
The HMICFRS report found a number of shortcomings in some police forces across England and Wales in dealing with the offences and was published against a backdrop of recent Home Office data which showed just 6.6 per cent of robbery offences and 4.2 per cent of thefts in England and Wales resulted in a charge in the year to December 2021.
It also discovered forces often lack capacity to investigate and, in some cases, the capability of officers was called into question due to a lack of practical skills and lack of access to joint tasking or problem-solving processes.
Many frontline uniformed response officers tasked with investigating these types of crimes said administration and competing demands delayed investigations.
Changes to the rules on disclosure had an enormous impact on workloads.
Chris said: “There are not enough hours in the day to keep up with the ever-increasing demands and the workload for detectives and changes by the CPS to disclosure rules have made matters worse.
“Our members are often working excessive hours and coming in on rest days just to keep on top of these impossible workloads and that is not sustainable.
“Many detectives have said enough’s enough and resigned which in itself creates more problems as we are left with fewer officers and greater expectations and demands on less experienced colleagues.”
The Fed secretary described suggestions that individual officers were at fault as “insulting”.
He said: “Everyone in policing has seen this coming for years but our members have continued to work incredibly hard in despite all the challenges.
“They are not to blame for this crisis and to try to hold them responsible is insulting. Shortsighted Government policies, disastrous underfunding, inadequate training and a shortage of experienced officers have led to this.”
National Federation chair Steve Hartshorn said recruitment and officer retention remained a key factor in the crisis and needed urgent attention.
He said: “We appreciate the Government is continuing with its uplift programme after a decade of police numbers being decimated, but there are still shortfalls in the number of detectives in forces across England and Wales.
“There are also localised issues with recruitment that need to be addressed in relation to the uplift.
“There is also huge concern around experienced officers leaving the service in droves and the knock-on effect this has on officers new in service. Leaders must ensure they do not just focus on getting people through the door.”
