Labour needs to crush the deluded Tory argument that we need fewer police because crime is falling

Since 2010, Northumbria Police, like other forces, has lost 26% of its funding. £117M, 15% of our police and 37% of our staff are gone and Osborne will cut another 5% a year. Between 2010 and 2020 the national police grant will have been halved. 84% of police costs are for people and cutting the same again from Northumbria will remove 1,700 more officers from a force of 3,600. That is mission impossible and a terrible warning of what is to come if we don’t win.

No problem, say the Tories. Crime has fallen since 2010 so we don’t need so many police.

Only Theresa May thinks that cutting crime is the sole reason for police and the hallmark of success.

She relies on the Crime Survey for England and Wales, which asks households if they have suffered offences and it found 11% fewer in 2014 than in previous years. But the CSEW does not count sexual offences, trafficking, honour crimes, FGM, nor cyber crime and fraud, not shoplifting & business crime and it doesn’t count ‘victimless crimes’ like possessing drugs.

Taking only the most obvious of these ‘missing’ crimes, the Prime Minister’s Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) summit on March 4^th announced an increase, this year, in reports of abuse of 58% and rising. He rightly gave £7M extra to voluntary sector victims’ support groups, whose workload has surged through this new reporting, but what about the police who are investigating this upturn?

It is everybody’s view that the current increase in reporting abuse represents a small percentage of actual victims. Since Rotherham, Oxford, the Jay, Coffey and Casey reports, it seems clear that CSE is endemic, yet children do not call the police to report being abused, investigators have to seek it out.

In Newcastle, we have Operation Sanctuary, comprising undercover work, covert surveillance and a vast marketing programme, so that the community will understand the signs of abuse and pass on intelligence. Police have uncovered and charged 103 cases of rape or related crimes and clearly we must now take Sanctuary to other parts of Northumbria where exploitation may also exist. The cost in officer time has been enormous, far higher than the cost of charging 103 ‘traditional crimes’ as the CSE calls it, like burglary. Those offences may be going down but they are being replaced, at a rapid rate, by far more complex and difficult cases, mainly affecting our most vulnerable people.

The College of Policing says “While the number of crimes may have fallen, the level of demand on police resources has not reduced …. Complex crimes such as child abuse and domestic violence are understandably taking up more police time.”

It would also help if the Home Secretary worked at a police phone centre for a while. 88% of her calls would be about missing persons, anti social behaviour, traffic congestion, people with mental health issues and calls that should be tackled by the ambulance service. Crime represents less than 12% of Northumbria’s calls and adding on policing demonstrations, gathering intelligence, attending road accidents, stops and searches, supporting children on Child Protection Plans and shared management of violent offenders, the bulk of core business and thousands of officer hours are about public safety, in addition to tackling crime. None of this work is getting less. In fact as local authorities are forced to cut services like noise abatement units and community safety staff, referrals to the police are increasing.

Labour needs to say that the CSEW does not provide a profile of all crime; only the Tories suggest that as a typical blind for what are ideological cuts to police. Any more cuts risk leaving our most vulnerable to live alone with abuse and the thousands of members of the public who seek police support when they have a problem, without anyone to help.