#CutsHaveConsequences: Government reveals what police officers knew all along

22 February 2021

Documents revealing the Government DID see the link between police cuts and a rise in serious crime have been released confirming what police officers knew all along says Essex Police Federation.

After a lengthy process involving The Information Commissioner papers have been made public showing the Government’s own experts concluded that in late 2017 to early 2018, Whitehall cuts to police resources had contributed to the surge in serious violence.

Publicly Theresa May’s Government, and the Home Secretary at the time Amber Rudd, denied the link.

It is a case of we told you so, Laura Heggie Essex Police Federation Chairman said.

“It’s taken a long time for them [the Government] to understand and to actually see the consequences,” she said.

“If it had been, if we’d been listened to earlier on, then perhaps we wouldn’t have had to get to the stage where we are now.

“And then we wouldn’t be having to go through this full recovery in order to gain back a little bit of what we had before.”

Laura hopes it might lead to some ‘learnings’ in the future.

“Hopefully the next time the suggestion of cuts come up, their memory isn’t short,” she said.

“We will always be reminding them of the situation and how it’s going to end up. That isn’t us scaremongering, that is us just telling them, as the people that do the job, the reality of their decisions and the consequences of their decisions.”