This article has been re-blogged with permission from the site of Jeffrey Harris, Deputy Police & Crime Commissioner for Surrey.

Why on earth am I posting something like this you may ask …. well, simply because it’s 100% on the ball …

Policing as we know it in England & Wales faces its biggest threat ever …

The ONLY way to get the message to the public about what is happening to a public service, and let’s be frank here, they pay for, is to shout loudly, continually, and from every single angle we can.

Posted in the interests of creating debate.

CC

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Over the last few years with the help of some stupid people, criminal behaviour by a few, and own goals from all  sections of Policing; the media and many politicians have had a field day criticising the many for the actions of the few – a tiny minority by any ones standards, but that’s life…..or is it? Every day Police Officers and support staff- and that includes Special Constables, put themselves in harms way, rushing to danger and putting themselves between the ‘wolves’ and the ‘sheep’.

We constantly hear ‘experts’ and those who  can’t possibly understand the complexities of modern policing, internally as well as external to policing, vent their beliefs about ‘How the Police should do it….What the Police must do…’, ‘What the CC’s/PCC’s must do, etc, etc.

 Seems to me that nowadays the only people who don’t know anything about policing after 190 years, are the Police themselves

A classic comment from the Policing Minister – who should know better – is’ The Police have enough resources, it’s just about how they deploy them’ , (How do you deploy invisibility?) or even better from the new Shadow Home Secretary: ” Labour supports PCC’s but we also believe there could be another 10% cut from the budget”… I may have slightly paraphrased that but my response is to both..

As the Americans say it…………. WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE! 

You and the other 650 MPs and 900 Members of the House of Lords took an oath to protect the people of Great Britain. 

By your comments, politically motivated and vendetta driven policies you and the other 1600 members of Government are sytemically – and that is the right word -destroying the very fabric of community safety – not just policing, hence my carefully chosen wording

Quite rightly there is a fuss about the loss of the livelihood of 1700 Steelworkers in Redcar-and quite rightly Government are now (at last) stepping in to re-train the jobless, and finding £80million to do so. I will keep my personal views about the timing and agendas at play here. (other than the say ‘Northern Powerhouse’).

But when TWENTY times that number of Police jobs go, and another TWENTY times that are going in the next 3-4 years…WHERE is the Fuss? Where is the Govt Finance package? Where is the Opposition spokesman defending policing?

His words this week……..’I think Policing can  afford another 10% loss of budget’…..(By my maths Mr Burnham – That’s just under £800 Million) -and he’s in opposition!

I”m a simple person, but here’s my summary…..Lose 1700 jobs -find £80million from Govt. Lose 34,000 from policing with another 34,000 and just keep cutting…cutting…cutting.

Some will argue my theory/opinion is wrong, if so let’s have that public discussion  at PMQT, or even National TV, but I doubt if H.M Opposition care enough-with the odd exception-to raise the issue. The Govt certainly don’t give a ……..

I’ll finish with my usual statement – There’s a perfectstorm coming to the safety of our communities, and the very people who  are charged with keeping us safe are looking the other way…..deliberately.

 That, sir/madam, is unforgiveable.
JH