West Midlands Police 'overstretched' due to national incidents
Overstretched police in the West Midlands are taking longer to handle non-emergencies because they are being called to cover major events elsewhere in the country.
The stark warning from Chief Constable Chris Sims came in a report delivered to a meeting by West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson.
The report written on behalf of the Chief Constable 'asks the commissioner to acknowledge that although WMP demonstrates its capability to meet the local and national public order responsibilities; this is increasingly to the detriment of the delivery of non-emergency local policing during deployment periods'.
The report does not detail which incidents have stretched the police so thinly.
However, one recent example was the 2014 Nato summit.
It saw 453 West Midlands officers sent to Wales between August 26 and September 9 last year.
Most were working seven to 14 days in a row.
It meant around six and a half per cent of the force's total number of officers were deployed away from the West Midlands.
The force has stressed it has had no impact on emergency responses to people who dialled 999 but has led to a 'delay' in non-emergency services 'beyond normal expectations'.
The report adds: "WMP have a comprehensive mobilisation plan which covers the deployment of resources locally, regionally and nationally.
"The force mobilisation plan is shared with regional forces as a matter of routine to ensure compliance with national mobilisation requirements.
"It has become increasing challenging to maintain all local policing services during times of significant public order deployments, elsewhere within the WMP area or further afield, with the staffing reductions we have experienced in recent years.
"To be clear, emergency service policing remains resilient during these periods, but we are often compelled to delay non-emergency services beyond our normal service expectations."
West Midlands Police have already handled a £126 million cut in Government funding over the past four years while also reducing recorded crime by18 per cent. Now it faces finding savings of up to £100m more over the next five years.
Mr Jamieson intends to put up the force's share of council tax bills.
West Midlands Police's share of council tax, known as the precept, will go up by 1.99 per cent, generating an extra £1.5 million a year in funds.
The decision means rejecting a grant from the government worth half of that which was offered to any authority that froze or reduced council tax bills.
The force wants to recruit 450 new officers and 83 civilian posts.
These new civilian jobs will be to cover front desk and cell block arrangements at stations.
