City of London Police Federation Chairman sends letter to local councillors highlighting budget concerns

24 June 2021

Please see below a letter from Mike Reed, Chairman of the City of London Police Federation, sent this afternoon to the 25 Aldermen and 100 Councillors in the City raising the Federation’s concerns about budget cuts and the consequences that these will have to people’s safety in the Square Mile.

City Of London Police Budget reduction 2021/22

Dear Representative

I write to you as the Chair of the City of London Police Federation.

If you are not familiar with the Police Federation, we are a statutory body that not only represents the interest of officers up to the rank of Chief Inspector, but also to ensure the efficient and effective running of the Police Service.

It is with regards to the efficiency - and in particular - the effectiveness of a Police Service that protects those that have elected you to represent them that I feel the need to urgently bring to your attention our grave concerns on the consequences of cuts.

Not more than a couple of years ago the City of London Police (CoLP) presented to the Police Authority Board (PAB) a Stress and Risk Assessment for the protection and security of the City. This document identified 118 additional roles within the service that were needed to meet risks to the public.

The Police Authority sanctioned 67 additional roles instead, which would have cost £5.3 million to deliver. In the same year, the force was also told to save £5.4 million. It is plain to see that because of this, no additional officers were in reality available and that as a force the only way to save this money was to leave police officer roles empty and shoulder the risk that the saving caused. That ‘risk’ represents the safety of those that you represent.

This year the PAB demanded an extra saving of £2.3 million from CoLP from its core funding. Core funding is the grant given to CoLP to protect the City. As a service CoLP has diversified its funding streams to staff and deliver on its national economic crime portfolio which makes up the majority of CoLP’s officers. It is not the role of these officers to provide protective and security services to the City, that is the role of the of just short of 400 officers out of 900.

Because of this year’s reductions, the Chief Officer Team at CoLP has had to delete 37 roles from its core funded units. Or put more simply its front line. That equals to around a One in Ten reduction to the services and protection the CoLP offers the public and businesses that you represent!

Shortly after the terrorist bombing of the Conservative Party Conference in the 1980s, the organisation responsible for it issued a statement which included the line ‘you have to be lucky all the time, we only have to be lucky once’. That statement is as true today within an ever-changing counter terrorist policing environment as it was then.

But can similarly be applied to the majority of the activities the front-line officers of the CoLP provide to its residential and business communities.

A One in Ten reduction of police officers means

• One in Ten fewer opportunities to respond and stop terrorist attacks, as sadly seen in recent years
• One in Ten fewer opportunities to disrupt terrorist planning (such as hostile reconnaissance)
• One in Ten fewer chances to reduce year on year increases in violent crime
• One in Ten less capability for us to deal with antisocial behaviour and locally raised issues
• One in Ten less availability to deal with the vulnerable and provide the service they need

The list could go on but there is one thing for certain that what you get for less is less. Cuts have consequences.

Ironically this reduction of officer numbers is set against a backdrop of the Government’s National Police Uplift Program, with the CoLP being the only force reducing in numbers and not increasing despite its funding authority being one of the riches public bodies in Europe, if not the world.

As a comparison percentage wise, the City of London Corporation contributes less to the Police Service it is responsible for than any other local authority in the Country.

The City is in the process of recovering from the effects of Covid-19 on it and its business, publicising it as the place to come and be. The ‘Square Mile’ is the shop front for the machinery that supports both The City and national economy. And history tells of the losses that are incurred when it is not safe. This reduction in officer numbers through reduced budgets needs to be addressed now - and not when it is too late.

We often see headlines in the press about ‘extra officers’ but the truth is that new officers now take three years to reach the streets through changes in training. As a service CoLP owes police officers two million pounds worth of extra days worked and this year alone, every officer has had 32 cancelled rest days for events that CoLP cannot cope with. And that is before these further cuts – that is the same as every officer having to work over 13 months in the year instead of 12. We need extra officers now, just to get to the point of operational competence let alone the additional numbers seen by other forces.

I request that you, as the elected representative of your ward and those you serve, make your voice heard on your constituents’ behalf and ask the City of London Corporation through the Police Authority Board to fund the City of London Police in a manner that allows the officers I represent to keep The City and its communities safe.

Cuts Have Consequences.

Yours

Mike Reed

Chair

City of London Police Federation