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500 police officers have gone
Chief constable Steve Finnigan
Rank-and-file police today claimed an increase in crime is “inevitable” after new figures showed the number of officers in Lancashire has plummeted in the past year.
Official figures show by the end of next month there will be 663 fewer police employees than in March 2011. By the end of March, 499 police officers and 165 staff will have gone.
Government cuts mean Lancashire Police has to hack £42m off the budget between now and 2015. Some 550 officer posts will eventually be lost.
By the end of March, police say £33m of the savings will have been made.
But Rachel Baines, chairman of Lancashire Police Federation, said: “I think it is inevitable that crime will rise if you take that number of police officers out of the equation.
“There is no way you can take out more than 500 officers and not see an impact, whether that be crime figures or the level of service the public will receive from us.
“While we appreciate that Mr Finnigan has no option, you can’t take that many millions out of the budget and not see an impact.”
Lancashire Police Authority will today discuss the police budget for next year, which could see a further £4m in savings having to be identified.
Chief Cons Steve Finnigan, Lancashire’s top police officer, said: “The numbers of police officers will always be of concern to the public, but the public also want to be reassured that police forces are using money given to them as efficiently as possible, so we must look carefully at what police officers do, and not just at how many of them do it.
“As future public spending levels reduce, we know that there will continue to be hard choices and, as most of the police budget is spent on staffing, this means that we have to ensure we are getting the best out of every single member of staff.”
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Wednesday 23 May 2012
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Comments
There are 57 comments to this article
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Keep Labour Out
Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 01:21 AMSnobbery as usual Commie Crag, what do you have against porters? I am not one but they do a great job and you mock them which is totally hypocritical as you don't even work lol. Shirker.
Crag
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 10:29 PMNot to mention hard working porters..
Keep Labour Out
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 10:05 PMBrookss4 yet again you moronically prove you have no understanding of a nurse's job. I do not get £40k for changing bedpans and taking blood pressures, there is much more to being a nurse which you clearly are too simple to understand. Nurse practitioners are autonomous practitioners and we can assess, diagnose, treat and prescribe for patients autonomously. I earn every penny of my salary and your childish comments are very insulting to hard-working nurses.
prestongirl77
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 05:25 PMi am one of the 500- left to go traveling and then forced to resign while i was out of the country so I could be another tick in the box. Most of us are hardworking, work lots of unpaid hours and face danger daily- and i can tell you from working alone in the city it was daily and i am not exaggerating. My partner ex police too now works abroad in the same job, where he is paid double what the officers here are paid and gets a shot gun and hand gun and taser for his troubles....I loved my job and was sad to leave- no matter what the pay was.
notlikeitusetobe
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 04:58 PMJoseph D'etails If soldiers were paid the same as police officers I am sure they would be more than willing to contribute to their own pensions! Why do police officers need expensive cars, especially 4 x 4's do they go off roading or are they just trolling up and down the motorway? A decent estate car or van would suffice for the majority of the roles they undertake at half the expence!
brookss4
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 02:45 PM#51 top down re-organisation so that Tory MP's other interests can get contracts, just like George W Bush and his war in Iraq, to get contracts for Halliburton. Why ask such a simple question, lol?
feciko
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 01:37 PMKLO - (commonly known as SCAB) it would seem that you haven't read The Health and Social Care Bill and as its such a "great bill", why has been amended 100 times ...being "smeared by left-wing scaremongering and gullible people believe " why oh why can it not get through the house of Lords as it is... are these people so gullible?? The bill does mean privatisation, a NHS hospital down south is to be 49% used by private medicine to bring in additional revenue ...which will lead to longer waiting lists for NHS patients (you know the ones you care so much about) the only thing you do not like about the NHS at the moment is that a Manager (probably a young female University educated) can tell you what to do, (and with your attitude on this site), that certainly "gets up your nose". The LibTory pact has no mandate to to do a "top down" change in the NHS so why don't they concentrate on getting the fiscal side of this country back on track and leave the NHS alone ...
Doktorb
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 09:52 AMHow many people here will put their names forward as candidates in the forthcoming Police Commissioner elections?
brookss4
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 01:44 AMAnd my wage is not subsidised, I work in the private sector and so truely I earn many more times than you do, so what I say surely is more important than you as I contribute to society where as you drain it. £45k for changing a bed pan, seriously can taking blood pressures be worth that.
brookss4
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 01:17 AM#47 so how much of a top trump do you need for my opinion to count more than yours if I earn more than you. Remember I live down south, I am a chartered management account, and work within the financial sector. Would it pain you if in the 201112 tax year my earnings was more than yours. Does that mean my opinion counts more?
Keep Labour Out
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 12:41 AMThat pretty much does describe me and my wife except for the holidays because we are both busy working. You do appear very jealous because you obsess and pontificate about how much other people earn or how much people have like all tha silly "cabinet of millionaires" nonsense, I notice you have gone quiet on that after discovering your Labour heroes are just as bad but as I said before I really don't care. The trouble with Labour MPs is that they try and hide it.
Concerned of South Ribble
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 12:35 AMkeep Labour Out Why do you assume that I am clearly jealous of those who have it better than myself? You dont know how much I earn or have in the bank. Do you have a four bedroomed detached house, two cars, go on cruises and have a minimum of four major holidays a year?
Keep Labour Out
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 12:29 AMObjective? Lol, you are not objective at all. You are as biased as any other commenter, you are not objective by any stretch of imagination. You are biased very strongly to the left. You blame everything on Cameron and the Tories and post a lot of very insulting generalisations saying tories are all millionaires and toffs and such forth, you are not objective at all.
Keep Labour Out
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 12:25 AMI am not naming names but the officer was a relatively senior officer and he spoke as though it is common knowledge, this was in public it is not some closely guarded secret. I am not pontificating about anything, yes we do earn that amount of money because we have good jobs and we work hard. I am not being smug, vindictive or spiteful. I work hard I get a good salary, what is so wrong with that? You are the one who is pontificating because you are clearly jealous of those who have it better than you. All this "cabinet of millionaires" rubbish, typical socialism the politics of envy.
Concerned of South Ribble
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 12:14 AMkeep Labour Out Who is this actual police officer you have been talking to? It sounds like he must know more than the Chief Constable By youre own admission, you and your partner earn more than £80,000. Yet you pontificate to the majority of writers to this forum who probably earn a fraction of that amount. You come across as a smug person who is doing all right. You even know that if you lose your job you will get a golden handshake. In all my correspondence I try to be objective. You come across as a smug, vindictive, spiteful person with an axe to grind.
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