Northumbria Police plans to axe more than 100 community support jobs.
The force is slashing the majority of its “highly valued” Police Community Support Officer (PCSOs) posts as part of £12m budget cuts, though some staff will be redeployed to fill other vacant roles. Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner, Kim McGuinness, said the organisation could not afford to both keep all of its PCSOs and push ahead with plans to put an extra 134 police officers on the frontline.
It has been confirmed that 95 current PCSOs will be lost, plus a further 41 posts that are currently vacant – leaving only 60 after the major restructure. While PCSOs will be offered the chance to take up unfilled posts elsewhere in the force, those who do not want to do so will be made redundant.
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PCSOs, who are paid up to £29,000-a-year at Northumbria Police, are tasked with engaging with communities to offer a visible presence and help tackle local issues such as anti-social behaviour – but they do not have the same powers as a police officer, such as the power to arrest. They are described on the force’s website as “an important part of the policing family”.
Ms McGuinness had warned in January that “substantial” changes were needed to cope with the financial pressures caused by inflation. The Labour politician added: "Northumbria Police faces overwhelming cost increases as a result of inflation and other challenges.
"More than £12m is needed to offset these costs. I have urged the Home Secretary to help us meet the costs but that request has been turned down. The problem here is budgets – we simply don’t have the resources to both increase police officer numbers and keep all PCSOs and that’s because Government will not fully fund Northumbria Police.
"As a result some PCSOs will be gradually redeployed to back fill other roles in the force. At the same time we'll invest more than 130 warranted police officers into neighbourhood policing. In the months ahead we’ll continue restructuring our neighbourhood policing to allow us to get more officers out on the streets preventing and fighting crime.”
Ms McGuinness recently imposed a hike of almost 10% in the police precept added to households’ council tax bills to help pay for a “restructure of neighbourhood policing”.
Assistant Chief Constable Brad Howe said that the force “must change and adapt to new ways of working”. He added: “In this case, we feel we need to re-focus our efforts with a new neighbourhood policing model which enhances our frontline capabilities to tackle the issues which matter most to our communities.
“Whilst our new model will see a reduction in the number of Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs), we will be investing in an additional 134 Police Officers. Police officers have the full range of policing powers which we feel is necessary to proactively target and disrupt offenders, reduce neighbourhood crime and anti-social behaviour and protect vulnerable victims.
“We also want to make it clear that our aim will be to redeploy those PCSOs impacted by this change into alternative existing roles within the force. We recognise that PCSOs continue to provide an excellent service to the public and they remain highly valued within Northumbria Police.”
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