TWO-THIRDS of all new police recruits in London will have to work for 18 months as volunteers with no pay, the Metropolitan Police Authority said. The move by the authority, which is struggling to cope with spending cutbacks that could put it £500 million (€575 million) into the red next year, is expected to be copied by other forces around the UK.
Until now the Metropolitan police paid its trainees £23,000 a year. Last year, 2,000 trainees were recruited, this year the figure will be only 900. The move could save up to £20,000 a recruit, human resources head of the Metropolitan police Martin Tiplady told the authority yesterday during a stormy meeting. It was told suitable candidates would be deterred by the changes, leading to a higher crime rate in London. Recruits get 25 weeks’ training and are supervised until they have two years’ service.
Authority chairman Conservative Kit Malthouse said the reforms would mean a “better prepared police at lower cost”; but the changes were criticised by Labour, Green and Liberal Democrat representatives. Decrying the plan as “fundamentally flawed”, Labour’s John Biggs said people would be put off a police career.
A report by the Metropolitan authority last week warned of a fall in police numbers. It said robberies and knife crimes in London were already rising, while detection rates for burglary, robbery and hate crimes were falling. Cutbacks in the force would affect the rest of the UK because it has national responsibilities also, most notably in counter-terrorism.
The authority warned last week that government budget cuts would leave the force with a deficit of £463 million, and risk cutting officer numbers, thereby reducing its ability to fight crime.
The changes in London are but the first signs of difficult times for the 43 UK police forces, including the Police Service of Northern Ireland. Already, the federation has warned that up to 40,000 frontline jobs in England and Wales will be at risk if the government’s plans to cut 25 per cent from day-to-day spending goes ahead.
The UK has 144,000 police officers – a record number after a decade of growth. They are backed up by 80,000 non-police staff in stations, who deal with administration. Aside from the thousands of volunteer special constables, who work up to 16 hours a month, there are 17,000 police community support officers, who patrol the streets but who do not have arrest powers.
Spending watchdogs acknowledge £1 billion could be saved from the overall police budget of £14 billion, but anything beyond that would lead to significant cuts in the number of police deployed.
