Police rally against cuts

Off-duty officers hold ‘day of action’ in London in protest against 20% cut to police budgets More than 2,000 off-duty police officers from across England and Wales are to stage a mass rally in the heart of Westminster in protest at policing cuts. Wednesday’s “day of action” has been organised by the Police Federation to highlight the impact of a 20% cut in Whitehall grants to forces and fundamental reforms of police pay and pensions. The protest will be the first mass action by the police since January 2008, when more than 22,000 officers marched through Westminster in protest at the failure of the then home secretary, Jacqui Smith, to backdate a 2.5% pay rise. On that occasion, Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, said it was a disgrace that the then Labour government had “let the officers down”. The Police Federation expects several high-profile speakers to show their support, including the shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper; the chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee, Keith Vaz; the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, Sir Hugh Orde; and the general secretary of the TUC, Brendan Barber. Paul McKeever, the chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: “We have no doubt that a 20% cut to overall police budgets will lead to more crime. It simply won’t be possible to provide the same level of service to the public that we do now if we are losing officers, support staff, vehicles and stations. “We accept that cuts have to be made but we ask that the government acknowledges our unique status. Police officers do not have industrial rights, so it is vital that the home secretary honours the police pay negotiation process.” He said the federation was calling for a fair negotiation on pay and process and honesty over the impact of the cuts on policing. The home secretary, Theresa May, warned police earlier this year that the “extraordinary circumstances” meant they had to accept a two-year pay freeze and reforms to their terms and conditions to avoid losing thousands of frontline jobs. “No home secretary wants to cut police officers’ pay packages,” she said. “But with a record budget deficit, these are extraordinary circumstances.” Police Public sector cuts Public services policy Public finance guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 13, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.