Frontline Staffordshire Police to avoid axe despite cuts
There will be no cuts to frontline policing in Staffordshire this year, despite saving requirements of £1 million, a force boss has vowed.
Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Ellis has declared that £1m can be saved in 2016/2017 without frontline officers being axed, although he could not make the same guarantee for back office staff.
The PCC has made the declaration in the force's final draft budget proposals.
The document states the force would actually spend £2.3m less this year compared to last year due to 'better management'.
Mr Ellis told the Express & Star that a lot of fully qualified police officers have been moved from non frontline to frontline roles and replaced with more specialist staff at a cheaper cost.
He said: "The closest people to an intermediate role are the control room staff.
"We had quite a lot of police officers in the control room which we have moved to the frontline andwe have made sure the control room staff are specialist. As well as being cheaper this is also far more effective. Similarly we had a lot of officers running around doing basic investigating work which could be done by someone else."
However the PCC could not guarantee there may not be future cuts to backroom staff stating that work exploring a merger between the police and fire service in Staffordshire was ongoing.
He added: "We are trying to get more money for the police and fire service and get rid of duplication. It is highly likely there will be a restructuring."
Government funding makes up two thirds of the Staffordshire Police's budget and the papers reveal the force is set to receive £610,000 less from the Government compared to last year – £106,424,000 compared to £107,034,000. But that has actually been welcomed as positive news because force bosses were bracing themselves for an expected cut of £5.5m.
The budget documents also declare the police proportion of council tax will be frozen in 2016/2017 and will hopefully remain the same in the coming years.
The papers also outline that £26m will be spent on IT over the next three years because the current infrastructure needs updating. The proposals go before the Police and Crime Panel in February.
