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.
