West Midlands Police operating ‘at risk’ over extra officer funding

Speaking at the Strategic Policing and Crime Board on Tuesday, Dave Thompson said that the government had not yet revealed what share West Midlands Police would receive of the 20,000 extra officers promised by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The government has already announced the funding allocation for year one of the expansion, £750 million up to March 2021, which the chief constable believes will help recruit around 6,000 officers nationally.

This could mean around 360 new officers for West Midlands Police by March next year if the government sticks to current funding arrangements, Mr Thomson continued, with around six per cent of funding going to the force.

However not even the funding formula for the initial £750 million has yet been announced – meaning that West Midlands Police is operating ‘at a risk’ in terms of its current recruitment procedures.

“At the moment I don’t know what decision government has made,” he said.

Opportunity

“My sense is that we will probably get some idea in the next two weeks of what that division is. But of course there is rather a lot going on politically, and my sense is that the decision around division will probably be made at a quite high political level.

“In terms of the work the force is doing, as the commissioner [Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson] says, we are working at a bit of a risk at the moment, in terms of the division of funding.

“From our perspective this is a transformational opportunity for us – we desperately need the resourcing, as a force, but at the same time we want to recruit a diverse and talented group of people to become police officers.”

Speaking after the meeting, Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson said: “I am concerned that low crime areas like Surrey will receive more officers art the expense of higher risk areas like the West Midlands.”