“We need more officers to take the pressure off our hard-working colleagues”

Greater Manchester Police Federation has raised doubts around the Prime Minister’s “promise” to get more policing boots on the ground.

The Government has unveiled a plan to put “thousands of bobbies back on the beat” last week in order to crack down on street crime last week, but Mike Peake, Federation Chair, has raised questions about where these will come from.

Mike said: “Neighbourhood policing goes to the heart of working with communities, building trust, and gathering intelligence to better tackle and reduce crime.

“Of course, I want to see ‘more bobbies on the beat’ but more importantly I want GMP to be able to have far more officers to take the pressure off my hard-working colleagues. However, without major government investment in police budgets I cannot see how this can be achieved.”

Sir Keir Starmer said he wanted to end the policing “postcode lottery” by ensuring every community had dedicated teams of officers focused on patrolling town centres at peak times in England and Wales. The PM also announced a “summer crime blitz” where police will patrol town centres targeting shoplifters, pickpockets, phone thieves and those who assault shop workers.

But Mike said that with most GMP departments are already understaffed, and that it is unclear where these extra officers will come from.

“Moving more officers into neighbourhood roles will only result in officers who are working in other key roles having to do even more work, which is just unsustainable. Sadly, we are seeing far too many officers leaving GMP as the role of a police officer for many carries far too much workload pressure and risk”, Mike added.

Find out more, here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm244zxjp7ko