Federation raises policing concerns with MP

16 April 2025

Extra officers brought into the Force to boost neighbourhood policing must not be used provide cover for other overstretched teams, Halesowen MP Alex Ballinger has been told.

Jess Davies, West Midlands Police Federation’s acting deputy chair, and branch health and safety lead Patrick McBrearty met with Mr Ballinger in his constituency office to discuss members’ concerns as part of an ongoing campaign to build effective working relationships with the region’s MPs.

“Our Police and Crime Commissioner applied to the Home Office for funding for extra officers and PCSOs through the Government’s Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee through which £100 million has been pledged to deliver 13,000 more officers nationwide,” says Patrick.

Halesowen MP Alex Ballinger.

“Of course, as a Federation, we welcome this move but there is a real danger that these officers could end up being drawn into response or other teams if those departments don’t have the right resources.

“We need to ensure that these extra neighbourhood officers are actually used for neighbourhood policing and I have grave concerns about whether this will actually be the case.”

The Federation reps also discussed officers’ concerns about the W80 case ruling and the impact that had on their confidence about using their legal use of force powers and the officer retention crisis.

Patrick and Jess said Mr Ballinger, a Labour MP, appeared to understand many of the issues they discussed with him since his mother had worked as a member of police staff and he had other family members who had worked in policing.

Policing stakeholders

They asked him to bear in mind their concerns when meeting with chief officers and other policing stakeholders and when attending public meetings.

Jess said: “We were grateful to Mr Ballinger for finding the time to talk to us and for listening to our members’ concerns. He is one of a handful of MPs that we have managed to meet since the General Election in July last year.

“We have written to all the region’s MPs several times since then asking to meet with them but we are making very slow progress – although we do have a number of meetings planned in the next few weeks.

“It is disappointing that other MPs have yet to even reply to our messages. Crime and policing are incredibly important issues for the communities we serve as a Force and for the public who elected our MPs so we would have expected more to have wanted to meet with the Federation and discuss the issues facing our officers, the Force and the police service as a whole.”