Government plans to tackle anti-social and drunken behaviour will fail as cuts to policing mean there are simply not enough officers to provide the police presence the Prime Minister is calling for, according to the leader of Derbyshire Police Federation.

In a speech on Wednesday, David Cameron promised to tackle the “scandal” of drunkenness and alcohol abuse and suggested the use of American style “drunk tanks” - cells where people sober up overnight.

He also said there should be more police on patrol in hospitals to help deal with drunken and anti-social behaviour in accident and emergency departments.

“While supportive of efforts to try to tackle this problem, yet again, as happened during the recent public service strikes, police officers are expected to fill the gaps and deal with a society-wide issue caused by years of failing to deal with binge drinking,” says Mark Pickard, who leads Derbyshire Police Federation which represents the county force’s constables, sergeants and inspecting ranks.

“The Prime Minister throws these ideas into the melting pot but yet again he fails to consider who picks up the pieces when the wheel comes off as undoubtedly it will with this crazy idea.

“This is yet another soundbite from a Government that will not listen to the people who deal with these issues on a daily basis.

“Throughout the country, the police, particularly in large towns and cities at weekends, struggle to keep a lid on the problems caused by excessive drinking and Derbyshire is no exception.

“The longer licensing hours mean that officers now cannot accurately predict when and where trouble is likely. The old licensing hours meant we knew that most people would be out on the streets at 2.15am and thus we catered for that. There is now a longer period in which trouble could flare.

“There are regularly queues in custody areas while people wait to be booked into their ‘en suite’ room for the night.”

Mark is also critical of the Government for looking to America for solutions and is opposed to ‘drunk tanks’ where a number of people are detained in one cell.

“In this country, we do not do this for sound reasons. These people are often prone to violence or illness. People entering custody are subject of a ‘safer detention’ policy and ‘drunk tanks’ would fly in the face of our well tried procedures.

“Imagine having 10 people in a ‘drunk tank’ and they all become violent, as undoubtedly they will, how would that be dealt with?

“As per current procedures, when these 10 fall asleep they have to be woken regularly to check on them.  This is staff intensive – staff we cannot afford to lose due to the cuts to the policing budget.”

The Derbyshire inspector has his own ideas for how the Government should tackle the problems caused by people who are drunk.

“When trying to control excessive drinking, they should look at the law of the land, which is quite simple - bar staff should not serve people who are drunk,” Mark explains.

“If Mr Cameron wants to do anything to sort the problem he should invest in police or local government licensing teams to robustly ensure that landlords and licensees abide by the law.

“It has been shown that where the laws are robustly upheld licensees take more responsibility.

“Mr Cameron’s suggestion is as daft an idea as that of the previous Prime Minister who wanted police to take a drunk to a cash point so they could pay an on the spot fine. Where is that idea now?”

The Government is due to publish its alcohol strategy for England later this year but in the meantime its current proposals have also been criticised by the national chairman of the Police Federation.

Paul McKeever says: “The Prime Minister’s suggestion of ‘putting more police on patrol in hospitals’ to help deal with problems of drunken and anti-social behaviour would be a laudable solution if the police service wasn’t struggling to meet the current workload.

“We are already trying to cope with 20 per cent cuts to our budgets imposed on us from the Prime Minister and his Government. We simply do not, and will not, have the police officers or the resources to assist the health service with protecting properties such as hospitals.

“Over the next two years we will see 34,000 police officers and staff cut from the service so it will be nigh on impossible to provide the level of service that the Prime Minister speaks of.

“Unfortunately, this announcement demonstrates that the Government has addressed a very serious issue such as alcoholism in a very isolated way. Tackling binge drinking from the point of view of the Department of Health without considering the implications for other public services is unhelpful and is likely to fail.

“To recommend locking people up in so-called ‘drunk tanks’ to resolve the issue of binge drinking is dangerous. People who are very drunk can be vulnerable and often require medical attention so locking them in a confined space is not an effective solution. Police stations are not the right places for people with alcohol problems. We should be looking closer at finding treatment for the problem rather than sticking a part-time solution over the issue.”

Notes to editors: Derbyshire Police Federation is a staff association representing the interests of more than 2,000 constables, sergeants, inspectors and chief inspectors serving the Derbyshire Constabulary. It influences decision-makers and helps maintain and improve its members’ conditions of services and pay. It is committed to providing quality advice, support and representation.

The Police Federation of England and Wales represents 140,000 police officers up to and including the rank of chief inspector. Established by statute, it is responsible not only for the welfare of its members but also ensures that their views on all aspects of policing, including relevant legislation, are relayed to the Government, opinion formers and key stakeholders.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS RELEASE OR DERBYSHIRE POLICE FEDERATION PLEASE CONTACT JULIE ALBRAY OF XPR (UK) LTD ON 01455 212230, 0777 164 3337 OR JULIE@XPRUK.COM

The Home Secretary’s insistence that cuts will not affect the police’s ability to provide front-line services despite public support for the Government to re-think its plans, shows that she is out of touch, according to the chairman of Derbyshire Police Federation.

Mark Pickard has spoken out after Theresa May gave a speech defending the Coalition’s proposals for policing after last week’s riots brought widespread media and public support for a halt to the cuts. She said it was not about the number of police officers employed but the number deployed.

“The Police Federation has repeatedly called on the Government to think again and expressed its concerns about the effect these cuts will have on officers’ ability to keep our communities safe, fight crime and protect vulnerable people,” says Mark, who heads Derbyshire Police Federation, the organisation representing Derbyshire’s constables, sergeants and inspecting ranks.

“In the wake of the riots, our stance was supported by Sir Hugh Orde, who heads ACPO, and the acting commissioner for the Met who defended his officers and their actions when the early handling of the riots was criticised by the Prime Minister.

“Even Boris Johnson, the Conservative mayor of London, said he thought the Government should re-think its plans for 20 per cent cuts to policing budgets. We have also had support from the public with the majority of people questioned in polls conducted by The Guardian and The Times supporting calls for the Government to reconsider cuts to policing.

“The facts are that officers were working 18 – 20 hour shifts in order to keep a lid on London. However, if officers were to work 12 hour shifts we would require 32,000 officers to police the capital.

“Nevertheless, the Home Secretary has come out again saying that the cuts are necessary to help tackle the budget deficit and that they won’t affect front-line policing.”

During her speech Mrs May did praise the bravery of officers and admitted that many felt their hands were tied when trying to tackle rioters saying “they were damned if they do and damned if they don’t’.

She promised her support: “As long as you act within reason and the law, I will never damn you if you do.”

The Home Secretary called for robust policing, backed by community support with strong, enforceable powers so that forces could deal with gangs, criminality and anti-social behaviour and also suggested new curfew powers.

“She also argued that rather than 20 per cent cuts, they actually amounted to six per cent due to their desire to raise the council precept payable by the public by 14 per cent over the next three year years,” Mark explains.

“It is wholly wrong that our communities should have to pay so much more for their policing and puts the Police Authority, and the new police commissioner from May 2012, in an unenviable position when considering budgets.”

Police officers swear an oath to the Queen making them servants of the crown. As a result, they give up the majority of employment rights that protect other employees and accept restrictions on their private lives. They have to follow lawful orders.

An excellent example of the effects of this involves the policing operation being planned to secure and safeguard the Olympics and Para-Olympics 2012.

Police officers have been told they cannot take annual leave throughout next summer’s Olympic Games. So, while many are going away with their family for their main holiday, officers will be tied to the Force area or will be working away from home supporting other forces.

There is also an eight-week period covering the Games and beyond when officers will have further restrictions on annual leave.

The Force has to make these orders so it can ensure we fulfill our commitments to the Olympics and the people of Derbyshire. Your officers accept this as part of their role of protecting communities and providing a high quality policing service.

Meanwhile, Forces nationwide are struggling to cope with 20 per cent cuts to budgets. A recent survey by Ipsos MORI revealed that 86 per cent of people were worried about cuts to services offered by the police.

Members of the community vary considerably in relation to their expectations of what the police do, for example, many feel we are responsible for intervening in domestic rows and disputes, for arranging to take vulnerable children into care or for helping people with mental health issues.

But while their views on our roles differ, the public, when consulted, always say they want more police officers visible in their communities.

The Home Secretary, working in this so-called “Big Society”, would be wise to take note of their views.

If we are to do all that the public expects of us, we need the Government to re-consider the scale of the cuts they are proposing. The coalition is risking changing the police service from a ‘can do’ organisation to a ‘can do LESS’ organisation. This could well lead to us saying we can no longer respond to a variety of incidents that up until now we have attended. It will inevitably mean that we are providing less of a service to the communities we serve.

In Derbyshire, we have calculated that we will lose at least 123 officers. That’s 123 fewer officers fighting crime, solving serious cases or keeping our county and its communities safe.

And others share our view.

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, which conducts regular reviews of how the police perform, has stated: “Cuts to police budgets over 12 per cent would have a detrimental effect on frontline policing”.

The latest report from the Home Office, ‘Demanding times’, seeks to define the front-line, rightly recognising that public perception and confidence in the police is determined by visibility.

I believe Derbyshire’s front-line services will be affected by these proposals. They will hit everything from CID to road policing and from patrol to neighbourhood policing.

In my view, it is simply not right that such major decisions on the home security of this country are being decided in such a backhanded and back to front manner. By all means have a review of policing as a whole, tell us what is required and expected by the community we serve and then decide how and where cuts can be made.

The current approach is like a poorly written essay where the conclusion is made before the arguments have even been presented.

Let me give you an example of how out of touch some people are. As a Federation, we recently visited the House of Commons to speak to Derbyshire MPs about the proposed cuts and asked for their support to help protect our communities.

A researcher, employed by an MP, when told how the most vulnerable in her community may suffer stated: “Surely if that person felt unsafe in that area they would move house.” Two weeks later I am still aghast at her comment.

The irony will not be lost on police officers or the public that at a time when the Home Secretary is cutting policing budgets and attacking our pay and conditions she is relying on us to help her out while other workers exercise industrial rights. Remember your police are prevented by law from striking.

A prison strike is looming. The prison officer’s role is hugely different to ours yet it is the police service the Home Secretary looks towards for assistance. We trust the Home Secretary will recognise this when she says everyone must share the pain of the cuts and asks what makes the police different. This is her answer.

I have been a serving police officer for some 26 years dealing with a multitude of community and individual crises that have involved death and serious injury, significant disorder to the community or financial loss to individuals and the wider society. I am immensely proud to be an officer in what remains one of the finest police services in the world.

For some time the country has been in the depths of significant financial woe and it is only right that the public sector plays a part in tackling the deficit. Police officers are not immune to the other changes within society. We have a two-year pay freeze from September 2011 and we are seeing first-hand the effects of police staff redundancies both on a personal and professional level.

However, the very core of the policing tradition of which I am so very proud is being attacked. Policing in the country faces death by a thousand cuts.

The police service will continue to serve the public as well as it can and officers will continue to place themselves in between the public and the threats that they face on a daily basis because that is our job. That is what we do and we will not stop doing it. But we should think about the mindset that we place those officers in when they stand and confront those threats. Perhaps it is time for the public and the Government to stand with us in protecting their thin blue line.

Remember, where others run away from the danger we run towards it to protect our public. We joined to help others. We now need your help.

You can play your part in protecting policing by calling on your MP to sign an Early Day Motion asking for a Royal Commission on policing, which would lead to a full review of the police service. Visit www.westmidspolfed.com for more information.

I am the chairman of Derbyshire Police Federation, voted into the position on 18 January 2011 and representing 2,030 police officers, although that number will fall over the next few years.

I have 26 years’ service, the majority on what I would call the front-line. I believe this experience serves me well. I can be relied upon to give the true picture of policing in Derbyshire and dispel a few myths.

Derbyshire Constabulary’s overall aim is to "provide a high quality policing service to everyone in Derbyshire" and the officers I represent truly try, on a daily basis, to deliver this to the communities we serve.

We may not always get it right but it is not for the want of trying.

Police officers swear an oath to the Queen making them servants of the crown. As a result, they give up the majority of employment rights that protect other employees.

We have to follow lawful orders and, to prevent supervisors keeping us at work 24/7 and bringing us into work on a whim, we have a degree of protection in the Police Regulations.

Over the last few months, the pay and conditions of police have been reviewed by the former rail regulator Tom Winsor. A further review of public sector pensions, including police pensions, has also been conducted by Lord Hutton.

Before the reviews were published, I feel the public were fed untruths by some parts of the media. The Government decided to ignore the untruths and played along.

For example, headlines claimed police officers get double-time payments for working Sundays. This is not true. Officers get their normal hourly pay, just like any other people who work Sundays.

Newspaper reports also said that an officer receiving a telephone call at home would get a minimum of four hours’ pay. I would laugh if this wasn’t so serious. The Police Regulations do not allow for this.

During my time as a sergeant and more recently as an inspector I have never signed an over-time form approving this and no officer would ever contemplate placing one in front of me. If this were the case then I would be a very rich man as I have regularly been called at home for all manner of reasons. I have never been paid for this, and wouldn’t expect to be.

Other stories talk about police receiving gold-plated pensions.

We receive a good pension and we contribute handsomely every month for a good pension. We pay the highest contribution of any public body, 11% of our pay. In comparison, judges pay 3% and the armed forces 0%, although in the latter case I do not begrudge them this, they earn every penny.

As a result of the Hutton review we may have to contribute up to 14% of our wages to our pension. However, although this is not personally desirable, we all have to do our bit due to the mess others have left us in.

At a time when people all around us are losing their jobs and fear for the future, I do not want to portray a ‘woe is me’ attitude but wish to set the record straight with the examples above.

I assure you police officers share the public anxiety in these hard times; the safety of our communities is a huge worry for our officers. After all they are part of the community!

At the moment, we have around 257 police officers per 100,000 of the population in England and Wales, putting us in the bottom third of the European policing league table. If the proposed cuts are pushed through, we will fall below 215 officers per 100,000 – lower than the 1970s when policing was in meltdown and when we had fewer responsibilities than today. Yet police minister Nick Herbert remains convinced that with less we can do more. There is a complete failure to recognise the many non-crime related matters we deal with every day, such as mental health, shelter and victim support.

There is no doubt our public fear the effect of cuts on policing. Around 9 out of 10 people interviewed for a recent survey by Ipsos MORI said they were worried about cuts to services offered by the police.

The public are clearly concerned and have a view on what they want and expect from their police service. This view is clearly different to the Government which appears to think that policing is purely about fighting crime.

The Home Secretary should take note of the findings of this survey.

If we are to do all that the public expects us to we need these cuts to stop. A cut of 20% over the next four years will inevitably mean that we are providing a poorer service to the communities we serve and this could jeopardise public safety.

The Government claims it wants to protect the front-line but this cannot be done if we lose around 12,000 police officers across the country.

In Derbyshire we have calculated that we will lose at least 123 officers. That's 123 fewer police officers fighting crime, solving serious cases or keeping our county and its communities safe. Cutting so fast and so deep into police budgets is crazy. It is completely out of touch with members of the public across the county who want to keep bobbies on the beat.

When the public are consulted they always say they want more police officers visible in their communities.

Throughout my time in the police the business of policing has grown in that we now have terrorism, computer crime and much more variety of incidents and crimes to resource on a daily basis.

In Derbyshire, we have had eight continuous years of falling crime, 35,000 fewer crimes, a great feat. The Government risks this being reversed.

Our Chief constable and your police officers are being put in an impossible position. They are working hard to fight crime, but the Government is pulling the rug from underneath them.

In short we have been CONDEMned!

Mark Pickard
Chairman
Derbyshire Police Federation