Category Archives: Police

Press Release: Police Numbers Falling

Liam Byrne, Member of Parliament for Birmingham Hodge Hill today expressed a warning about police cuts as figures show that police numbers are already falling across the region.

The latest Police Service Strength survey is out and every force in the West Midlands is down
West Mids Region 3.2%
Staffs 2.8%
Warks 4.9%
West Mercia 5.8% (biggest fall in the country)
West Midlands 2.4%

Liam has campaigned for more police since his election in 2004 and celebrated in 2010 with news that Shard End Police team was to double in size, Washwood Heath Police numbers had doubled from 27 in 2006 – 2007 to 54 in 2010.

Crime has fallen year on year. In 2009 it fell by 13% for the second year in a row.

Liam said:

‘We know that more police equals less crime, nowhere is this more obvious than in Hodge Hill where the Police have done a tremendous job bringing crime down. I am gravely concerned that in their haste to save money, the Tories are going to reverse that trend bringing misery for local residents.

Vernon Coaker MP, Labour’s Shadow Policing Minister, responding to the Police Service Strength statistics released by the Home Office today, said:

“These figures highlight what we already knew – that choices being made by this Tory-led Government mean cuts to police numbers across the country. We committed to protect frontline policing in our manifesto but this Conservative-led Government seems to be intent on seeing fewer police officers tackling crime and anti-social behaviour on our streets. Our big worry is that this is only the start of what could become much worse news on police numbers.”

“These figures highlight what we already knew – that choices being made by this Tory-led Government mean cuts to police numbers across the country. We committed to protect frontline policing in our manifesto but this Conservative-led Government seems to be intent on seeing fewer police officers tackling crime and anti-social behaviour on our streets. Our big worry is that this is only the start of what could become much worse news on police numbers’

 

Birmingham MP’s statement on police cuts

Liam and Birmingham MPs at Home OfficePress Statement – BIRMINGHAM LABOUR MPs

IMMEDIATE RELEASE 16/12/2010

WEST MIDLANDS POLICE HIT HARDER THAN LOW CRIME SURREY

270 EXPERIENCED OFFICERS TO GO BY MARCH

The West Midlands Police is one of the top two hardest hit in the country. The least hard hit force will be Surrey. As a result of the unfair financial settlement the West Midlands Police Authority have approved implementation of Regulation A19 – which will mean 270 of West Midlands most experienced Police officers will go by March.

The Birmingham Labour MPs have released the following statement:

“This is a bitter blow for the West Midlands Police and the people they serve. Residents of Birmingham and the West Midlands will be absolutely stunned that their police service is being hit harder than low-crime Surrey. So much for we’re all in this together.

“We know that as a result of these cuts there will be fewer bobbies on the beat and their ability to prevent crime, solve cases and protect the public will be diminished.”

“Only today, the West Midlands Police Authority have announced that up to 270 of their most experienced Police officers are to go by March, with another 800 police officers expected to be lost in the coming years.”

“The West Midlands is a high need area with big challenges for the police and communities alike, and it is being treated less favourably than low-crime Surrey. These cuts risk rising crime, despite the best efforts of the Police service.”

“We met with the Police Minister, Nick Herbert, last week to ask for a fair deal for the West Midlands and yet the announcement is worse than feared, with bigger cuts in 2012-2013 than anyone expected. This settlement is completely unfair and unjust, we will continue to pressure the Government to think again”

Notes to editors:

  1. The headline figure for all police authorities is a reduction in funding in 2011/12 of 5.1% and a further reduction in funding in 2012/13 of 6.7%.

2.       This approach further disadvantages WMPA because government grant represents 87% of the total WMPA funding, with council tax making up the remaining 13%.  In effect, 87% of WMPA total funding is reducing by 5.1%, equivalent to a reduction in overall resources of 4.1%.  This is in stark contrast to an authority with a lower proportion of government grant within their overall funding.

  1. The reduction in overall funding for Surrey is just 1.5%, compared to 4.1% for West Midlands due to gearing.
  2. Formula damping in 2011/12 lost West Midlands £27m, whereas Surrey gained £4m.
  3. Between 2006/07 and 2012/13, West Midlands has lost £279m to formula damping.  Over the same period Surrey has gained by £21m.

6.       Police authorities are funded through a national funding formula which reflects relative needs of each area, and hence gives a different amount of funding for each authority.  However, the Home Office has once more not implemented in full the results of the national funding formula, choosing instead to give the same level of reduction to all authorities.  Had the national funding formula been implemented in full, the funding for West Midlands would have been £27m higher in 2011/12, and £23m higher in 2012/13.

 

Our fight against drugs: Byrne briefs Birmingham’s police chief

One of the issues I promised to campaign on at the last election was for a tougher fight against drugs.

Today, I had the privilige of meeting our new Assistant Chief Constable Sharon Rowe at my Hodge Hill offices. I was able to thank ACC Rowe for the sterling work of our local neighbourhood police teams – and underline how vitally important we believe see the fight against drugs to be.

ACC Rowe has massive experience to bring to Birmingham from the Met in London. I’m glad we’ll have that experience on hand in our fight against the dealers trying to profit from poison.

 

Save our cops: our campaign is launched

A huge meeting of Birmingham’s Labour activists gave the green light last night to the launch of a city-wide campaign to save our cops.

A good 150+ Labour members from across the city came together in the council chamber with Sir Albert Bore, Jack Dromey, Khalid Mahmood, Shabana Mahmood, and myself to talk campaign tactics to respond to the government’s comprehensive spending review. Our argument is very simple. We know there’s the deficit needs to be paid down. That deficit was the money we spent as a country to save peoples’ bank accounts, keep public services running as taxes fell off a cliff, and to protect peoples’ job and homes. Now the recovery is under way we need to pay that deficit down. But, let’s earn our way through – not cut our way through. If we focus on getting more peoples into work they’ll be more people paying taxes, and more people rowing the boat.

George Osborne’s budget cuts half a million public sector jobs – and could end another 500,000 private sector jobs reliant on public services. That’s a million people less rowing the boat. That makes it harder for the rest of us.

Especially if the cuts to policing are delivered on the scale promised. The Tory Home Secretary Theresa May, has done nothing to protect the police service. She’s accepted a cut of 20%. But the sequencing of those cuts – bigger in the first year – mean upto 800 could from the West Midlands Police Force – by March next year.  Upto 1,200 officers could go over the next few years. That’s simply crazy.

So, Birmingham’s Labour MP’s will be lobbying the Home Secretary to protect West Midlands P0lice. Almost uniquely, 85% of its budget comes from the Home Office (its just 50% in Surrey) and our force provides a unique range of services to the whole country. So, we’ll be hitting the streets and doorsteps across the city over the weeks asking the city’s support for a very clear message; save our cops.

 

Save our cops

Just back from meeting with our Chief Constable Chris Simms, together with Cllr Ian Ward, and MP’s Richard Burden and Khalid Mahmood.

I have to say we are very blessed here in the West Midlands in having a Chief Constable who is (a) excellent and (b) has a plan to keep the fight against crime as tough as its ever been.

But, be under no illusions, if the government hands down cuts of 25% then we’ll see big job losses by March, and cuts to both warranted officers and the civilian staff who back them up, approaching 2,500 over the next 4 years.

The West Midlands police has an almost uniquely high proportion of its budget from the Home Office grants – some 85%+. That means we’re more exposed than most to Home Office cut-backs. MPs agreed today, we’ll be going into bat to make sure that what-ever the total budget for police, we’ll do our utmost to soften the blow for the officers and staff who do so much to serve our city.

 

Shard End Resident Meeting: police update

Earlier this year, I ran my monthly residents’ meeting in Shard End – and one of the worries that we talked about was that police needed to be still more visible in the area.

As promised, I’ve discussed this with the police. One of the ideas the police used to address the problem was a Streetpirde initiative across the ward. In addition the police will be distributing a newsletter across the ward to make sure local residents have the local police team’s contact details. Let me know if you don’t get it.

 

Policing in Hodge Hill ward

Here’s the new link to the policing page for Hodge Hill ward. The online crime map is here.