‘Perfect storm’ on policing horizon, Superintendents President to warn

A combination of fewer officers and staff, reduced budgets, new threats and increasing traditional crime will create a ‘perfect storm’ for policing, the Superintendent President is to tell the Policing Minister. Chief Superintendent Gavin Thomas, president of the Police Superintendents’ Association of England and Wales, will highlight how policing services across the country are now based on fewer people working more hours and days, an unsustainable position in the face of increasing demand, at the annual conference of senior operational police leaders. Thomas will set out his message to new Policing Minister Nick Hurd at the association’s annual conference in Warwickshire on 4 September. He will urge the Minister and police leaders to review, with the public, what policing should and should not be expected to do, and make decisions on funding and resources based on this. His warning comes after a survey of the association’s members found only 27 per cent had enough resources to do their job properly. Thomas will say: “I suggest we have a perfect storm developing, comprised of fewer resources, reduced public services, new threats, and a worrying increase in some types of traditional crime. “If the model for delivering policing services in the future is fewer people, working longer, each doing ever more, then I suggest that model is fundamentally flawed. “Events and the demands on the service have demonstrated a clear case for an open, honest and transparent debate and review with government, local authorities, police and crime commissioners, and of course the public. “Otherwise we are being driven by not by the need to provide the best possible policing service that meets the needs of the public, but primarily by the need to save money.”