I joined the police in 2000 and was posted to a fairly large town, a town with moderate crime levels and the normal sorts of issues you’ll find anywhere across the country. It was generally a nice place to live and work.
I joined the police to help people, to make a difference. I wanted to catch burglars and thieves. I wanted to play a part in keeping the streets, if not safe then safer.
And I did. I had plenty of opportunity to proactively look for the people we knew were causing the problems in the area. I had the time to give victims of crime a decent service, so that at a time they were dealing with possibly the most difficult situation they’d encountered in their lives, they at least knew somebody cared and would do everything to bring them justice.
And I had the time to get to know people, both general members of the community and also the criminals I was protecting them from. And they got to know me. We built up a mutual, if not respect then understanding. And people from both sides of the criminality divide would give me information that helped me to do my job.
I was able to do my job in this way because that town had three police stations and between them, each shift, deployed 20 to 25 officers whose main role was answering 999 calls, catching criminals and giving that service which I was proud to provide.
By 2017, after doing a couple of different roles and getting promoted, I was again in a similar role and in a very similar town.
By this time we have had nearly eight years of austerity and dramatic cuts to policing. The same town which once had three stations now has one. Instead of putting out up to 25 officers, they’re now lucky to deploy 10.
The job itself has changed. It has become more complex with changing technology. And our ability to do it has changed, beyond all recognition.
Where previously I would attend a fairly basic incident and have the time to take a full crime report, associated statements, CCTV evidence and perhaps immediately look for likely suspects, now an officer has barely arrived before they’re being asked to attend another incident.
This means that often, that attending officer is simply unable to spend the time they’d like to with a victim. Before they can give that reassurance, that simple look or handshake to make a human connection, they are gone to attend the next incident.
And this leaves that victim of crime feeling like the police don’t care, that they don’t want to help.
Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the truth is that we know there are several other people in similar situations who are yet to see a police officer, and who have probably already been waiting longer than is acceptable.
This pressure also means those officers are more likely to miss things. It’s all too easy, especially when your radio is repeatedly signalling that you’re needed elsewhere, to miss a piece of a description for example.
The drive to try and make sure everybody is seen by necessity means the public don’t get the service they deserve and need. Not through a lack of care or negligence, but by constantly trying to keep the wheel on and make things work.
As a Sergeant, a key part of my role is deploying my dwindling team to where they can have the greatest effect. This means deciding, often in quick time, how to prioritise their work during their shift. And this element of my role has become more challenging, more complicated and far more frustrating.
When first promoted in 2005, if called to a report of car thieves disturbed in the middle of the night, I would look to try and deploy a pair of officers for a couple of hours to secure evidence and identify any suspects. Now, I would struggle to write off that pair for more than half an hour before they’re needed elsewhere.
Increasingly, we simply run from one incident to the next. We’re only seen when things have gone wrong. This, and station closures, are making us more remote from the public we serve. The very thing that we are most proud of – the relationship between the public and the police – is being undermined. The things that meant our police service stood apart from others are at risk.
But it is not irreversible.
Government’s first duty is to protect its citizens. The National Audit Office’s report this week found that the Home Office is unaware of the impact cuts have had.
By reversing the cuts to police, we can start to reverse the rise in crime that we have seen recently. We can reconnect with our communities and rebuild those links we’ve started to lose.
We can address the crisis in policing, and relieve the unrelenting pressure that my colleagues are under.
As I said at the beginning, I joined the police to help victims of crime. Increasingly, my colleagues and I are apologising to victims of crime for the service they are suffering. This has to change.
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