Force cuts recruitment to hit government target

A chief constable has warned he will have to hire fewer officers so he can meet government neighbourhood policing targets.

Paul Sanford of Norfolk Police said Home Office funding for "bobbies on the beat" did not actually cover the cost of paying for them.

The government has promised extra neighbourhood policing officers, but Sanford said hiring them meant he would have to cut back recruitment elsewhere.

The Home Office said it was investing £18.4bn in neighbourhood policing and its plan made sure officers were moved "out from behind desks".

Last year Sir Keir Starmer confirmed funding for forces in England and Wales to recruit an additional 3,000 officers to work in neighbourhoods.

Promising "bobbies on the beat and keeping people safe", he said they would help "end this culture of crime that is destroying our communities".

Sanford said that in the first year of the funding, he had recruited 31 extra officers and had been promised about £0.5m for 20 more.

However, he said that was not enough.

"The full cost of a police officer is £68,000, that includes pay, pension, national insurance and other employment costs. The funding we have been given for next year equates to £29,000 per officer, so [that's] 42% of the actual costs."

Sanford, who took charge of Norfolk Police in 2021, said to help cover costs, he had to put back plans to recruit another 16 officers in February.

Because the government funding was lower than expected, Sanford said he needed to make £3m in savings.

Sanford said sacrifices were made last year: "We used to have 10 or 12 police officers working in schools [working on] preventing crime, working with young people. We had to stop doing that to balance the budget."

He said he was working to identify other cuts for this year, but had already cancelled spending on technology to help answer non-emergency calls faster.

Andy Symonds from Norfolk's Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, said Sanford had been put in "a tough position".

He warned his members were struggling to cope with increasing workloads with many "knackered, tired, under pressure from being stretched and stretched and stretched".

"Last year, one in nine cops took time off for mental health reasons," he warned

A spokesman for the Home Office said it was "investing a record £18.4bn nationwide to rebuild neighbourhood policing, cut crime, and make streets safer".

They added that the funding for neighbourhood policing would "move officers out from behind desks and back into communities, while helping to fix a funding model driven by fixed headcounts".

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