Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe: Scotland Yard Commissioner says it's time to 'fight' Government over police budget cuts
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Version 0 of 1. Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, has said it is time for the police to “fight our corner” over budget cuts by the Government, agreeing with one detective that officers are “virtually broken”. The comment was made on ‘Ask the Commissioner’, a feature on Scotland Yard’s internal website, a copy of which was obtained by The Daily Telegraph. A detective sergeant, from Newham in London, asked him: “The message we constantly hear from the Commissioner and senior leaders is that despite budget cuts and everything else, we can cope and we will cope. “When will you listen to your staff and realise we struggle to cope, we are suffering, we are virtually ‘broken’ and we want you to tell Government this.” Sir Bernard replied: “I agree. The time has come to fight our corner. Watch this space.” A Metropolitan Police spokesman later explained that Sir Bernard had not meant that he agreed that his force was “broken”. “He does recognise the increasing pressures officers and staff have to bear as the Met transforms its ways of working and learns to live within more restricted means,” the spokesman added. Police force budgets have been cut by 20 per cent in the last five years with the number of officers in England and Wales falling by 17,000. It is thought forces will see their funding cut by between 25 to 40 per cent by 2020 amid a general drive to cut Government spending. Stephen Kavanagh, Chief Constable of Essex Police, said his force was now ignoring “minor complaints” such as complaints about anti-social behaviour. He told BBC Essex: “We get 1,200 calls a day — we can respond to about 600 of those.” Mr Kavanagh added that the idea of ‘bobbies on the beat’ was a “luxury” that risked being “walking aimlessly down the street trying to look good”. |