Staffordshire Police chief warns more officers could go
Staffordshire Police chiefs cannot rule out the possibility of losing even more officers and staff in the coming years, it emerged today.
In a frank interview with the Express & Star about his first three years in the job, Chief Constable Mike Cunningham admitted there would be further cuts to make in the future and explained that taxpayers could be asked to contribute more cash to policing.
His plea for a three per cent increase in the amount the force collects from council taxpayers was controversially turned down by the police authority last year. But that is something that will be revisited when the new Police & Crime Commissioner (PCC) takes up office in November.
"Increasing the precept is something that is for the incoming PCC. I will have a discussion with the successful candidate once they are elected to make sure that when they make that decision, that they're aware of the consequences of that decision going forward," said Mr Cunningham.
"We also need to think of other ways of using money already available to us for recruitment because all the signs that I read show that we're going to have a problem for some time to come. We've lost staff but there are more to lose."
The force is trying to make savings of £38million before 2015. Figures show 213 police officers have already left and the number of officers in the county is at its lowest since 1978. It is expected that officer numbers will drop from the current number of 1,915 officers down to 1,750 by 2015 with more savings in the future.
