Budget Shortfalls Will Have ‘A Huge Impact’ On Officers And Communities

12 February 2025

Cleveland Police already has low numbers of officers to tackle the demands it faces, Cleveland Police Federation has said, and if they reduce further it will have “a huge impact” on communities.

Last week, Policing Minister Diana Johnson said that police forces in England and Wales were facing “difficult and challenging” circumstances. The Government plans to invest an extra

£100m in neighbourhood policing in the next financial year, but this won’t cover every force’s shortfall.

Cleveland Police has seen a 0.2% drop in officers over the past six months. Meanwhile Essex Police is planning to cut 65 police staff roles, as well as reduce its South East Allowance payment by £250 and cut its Detective payment. Lincolnshire Police has said it may be forced to cut 200 police officers by 2029.

Paul Crowley, Chair of Cleveland Police Federation, said: “These cuts are incredibly dangerous. For example, in Cleveland, we’ve seen an overall reduction in the amount of police officers that we have available, and that reduction in numbers directly impacts communities, and it also directly impacts those police officers who remain within the organisation.

“Cleveland is a very busy force – we deal with a lot of violent crime and a lot of poverty in certain areas, and I’ve said many times that I don’t believe we get a fair slice of the funding pie from the Government. As a result, we are already low on officer numbers.

“If those numbers start reducing further, that is going to have a huge impact on police officers and their communities. Cleveland needs to be able to increase its number of police officers, not reduce them or make cuts around them.”

Paul said that the Government should have recognised a long time ago that police officers were being “pulled from pillar to post” to meet the needs of their communities.

He said: “The talk of cuts on top of this is, quite frankly, unfathomable. The Government shouldn’t be looking at cutting funding for policing and the number of officers we have on the street. We should be going the other way. Certainly in Cleveland, we need more, and we need them right now.”