Any Cut in Police Numbers is unacceptable says Lib Dem (Andrew Simpson)

Any Cut in Police Numbers is unacceptable says Lib Dem

September 4, 2007 10:45 PM

Andrew outside Northampton Police station

"This is a ludicrous move and will do nothing to help reduce crime and the fear of crime in the town."

Andrew Simpson, Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate for Northampton North, has reacted to the news that Northamptonshire Police are looking at replacing up to 400 frontline police with civilian staff as part of a major overhaul of services by calling the move "unacceptable".

"Any reduction in front line policing is unacceptable" said Andrew " We have only just started to build public confidence in the Police with the addition of the Police and Community Support Officers (PCSO's) now it seems cuts are being considered to front line policing in favour of employing more administrative staff. This is a ludicrous move and will do nothing to help reduce crime and the fear of crime in the town."

Despite official figures showing that crime and fear of crime are falling in Northamptonshire, the Police Authority are being forced to look at making radical changes to balance the books.

"What makes this even more unacceptable is that the figures are all moving in the right direction - with crime reducing" continued Andrew. "This proposal has nothing to do with improving policing in our town it is because of chronic under-funding of Northamptonshire Police compared to similar sized forces. Gordon Brown's Government is failing to provide a stable funding position for our police force and each year we seem faced with the dilemma of making further cuts."

Liberal Democrats have pledged to scrap the Government's costly ID card scheme and put the funds into employing more police instead.

"First we had the Government's disastrous attempt to merge our police force with others, then they underfunded the PCSO initiative now we see further funding cuts to Police numbers due to a lack of funds. This is no way to run a modern police force."

ENDS