🤝 COMMUNITY POLICING IN THE SPOTLIGHT
🤝 COMMUNITY POLICING IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Federation national deputy chair Tiff Lynch has made a passionate plea for an urgent return to community policing.
“Police officers are not out there doing what they are employed to do and what they want to do in terms of helping society,” says Tiff.
“What we have not got is officers out there on the street, mixing with the community and talking to the community. We need them listening to the community and finding out the root problems that are happening. This would enable them to be better equipped to both solve and deter crime.
“We need to bring back neighbourhood policing. It’s the bedrock of policing and the root of all policing because we are there in the communities we serve."
Derbyshire Police Federation chair Tony Wetton welcomed Tiff’s comments.
He said: “There is no doubt that the best way to serve our communities is through a neighbourhood policing model.
“It helps reduce crime and anti-social behaviour and also creates much stronger and more positive relationships between the police and members of the public.
“We have to restore public trust and confidence in the police and we can start that process with properly-resourced community policing.”
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🗣 'WE ACTUALLY NEED 50,000 NEW OFFICERS'
The Federation’s national deputy chair, Tiff Lynch, says the Government’s target of 20,000 additional officers is not even half of what is required to keep the communities of England and Wales safe.
As the Government edges closer to its self-imposed target of 20,000 new officers for forces across the country by the end of March 2023, Tiff believes a whole lot more resources need to be provided as demand continues to ‘go through the roof’.
“The 20,000 additional officers were to plug the gap of the officers we have lost since 2010,” says Tiff. “What we actually need are 50,000 new officers to maintain the levels of what we had back in 2010.
“There’s an ever-increasing population and demand is going through the roof. We are also doing additional roles that are outside of policing, so we absolutely have to keep the momentum going when the 20,000 figure is hit.
“We are losing officers hand over fist, whether that be through natural attrition or moving abroad in search of better opportunities or lifestyle for their families. So, recruitment cannot just stop when we have reached that limit and the Government says we have given you that subsidy of 20,000. Quite simply, we need more officers, much more.”
Derbyshire Police Federation chair Tony Wetton supported Tiff’s comments about the need to recruit tens of thousands more officers to meet the demands on the service – and suggested the figure was even higher than 50,000.
Tony said: “When the recruitment drive began we actually needed to recruit 50,000 officers just to reach the uplift target of 20,000 because of the numbers leaving over the past three years.
“Now we need even more officers to deal with the heightened demand being placed on policing through population increase and the complexity of modern crime – the 20,000 being recruited in the Government’s Uplift programme is not enough.”
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Derbyshire Police Federation is a branch of the Police Federation of England & Wales (PFEW) and represents all Derbyshire Officers up to C/Insp rank.
