'There's not enough of us': Staffordshire Police chief breaks down in interview over 'difficult' force cuts
The Chief Constable of Staffordshire Police has admitted he finds it hard to know how best to serve the public after a decade of cuts to his force’s budget.
In an emotional interview on the BBC’s Cops Like Us documentary, Gareth Morgan broke down as he described the “continual challenge” of keeping the public safe with limited resources.
And he said the Government’s pledge of extra funding for new officers was nowhere near enough to deal with the challenges faced by his force, including a surge in violent crime.
Staffordshire Police has suffered some of the worst cuts in the country over the last 10 years, losing 570 officers in a period which has seen knife crime across the county rise by 70 per cent.
The force is set to get 90 new officers by the end of this year as part of a Government plan to boost numbers in England and Wales by 20,000.
Mr Morgan said cuts to his budget had ramped up the pressure on his officers and forced him to make “difficult choices” such as closing down police stations – a decision which had weighed heavily on him personally.
“There's not enough of us, and I'm never going to shy away from saying it,” said Mr Morgan, who has been a policeman for 32 years.
“The uplift announced by the government of 20,000... that's welcome. But lets be absolutely clear, those increases don’t come anywhere near the reductions, and it will take us a long time to get back to where we were.
“Choices have been made. We have closed down a number of police stations across Staffordshire, and the reality is, not only have we had the issue of austerity, but the challenges of policing have also changed.
“There’s heightened issues relating to threats around counter terrorism, other serious and organised crime, the explosion of crime online.
“All of this has happened at the same time as the impact of reduced funding and resources.
“We've had difficult choices to make about where you prioritise the limited resources that you have got.
“My job is to try and balance those competing needs. With what I’ve got, where can I get the best return to keep the public as safe as I can?
“That is a continual challenge and I feel that very powerfully with the staff that I work alongside.”
He added: “It is hard when you're trying to get that balance right. It does weigh heavily on you in terms of... was that the right choice, is this the right direction to go in?”
Mr Morgan said he felt “a sense of outrage” when he saw that the station where he first worked had been closed down and sold off, adding that for some people police stations were considered a “refuge”.
