Swingeing cuts will see PSNI shrinking with Simon Byrne forecasting reduced police capacity

Chief Constable Simon Byrne has outlined a ‘stark budgetary situation’ that will result in the police service ‘shrinking’ over the next three years.
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The north’s top police officer said he did not wish to cause alarm but referred to an £80m shortfall by March, which, he outlined, will increase in subsequent years.

By March this will mean 75 fewer neighbourhood police officers; 96 fewer detectives investigating murder, terrorism, drugs and organised crime; 97 fewer officers in our Operational Support Department – including roads policing and the specialist search and public order teams of the Tactical Support Groups (TSGs)’ and 115 fewer police staff.

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There is a potential for reduced police station opening hours and a reduced vehicle fleet. Damaged or broken vehicles will wait longer for repair while building and maintenance work on what Chief Constable Byrne described as a ‘crumbling estate’ will be deferred.

Chief Constable Simon ByrneChief Constable Simon Byrne
Chief Constable Simon Byrne

Senior police are warning that it could take longer to answer non-emergency calls, capacity to investigate crime may be reduced, and there will less of a presence on the roads.

Equally, the PSNI’s ability to respond to sustained protest and public disorder may be reduced.

Chief Constable Byrne said: “We have previously made clear that we will have a funding shortfall of around £80 million by March this year and envisage bigger shortfalls in the years to come.

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"As a result, the Police Service is going to shrink over the next three years. By March there will be 309 fewer Police Officers and 115 fewer staff, a reduction of nearly 6 per cent. We will then have 6,699 full time officers.

"This is 800 officers fewer that the commitment made in the New Decade New Approach Agreement and the lowest officer numbers since the PSNI was formed.

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"This reduction comes at a time when our population is growing, when workloads are increasing, becoming more complex and crime is rising. Police are already making difficult choices every day to minimise the risk to the public and to reduce the harm these reductions pose."

The Chief Constable said that as the cuts are being implemented the service will continues to try to protect its core emergency and statutory functions.

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It is also trying to continue neighbourhood policing and to ‘protect areas of significant risk such as Public Protection which incorporates domestic abuse, sexual crime and child abuse’ as well as ‘understand the impact upon the welfare and wellbeing of our officers and staff’.

Chief Constable Byrne stated: “The message we delivered today is a bleak one. Inevitably with less police there will be less policing. In spite of this, as a Police Service, our core work will not change. The public can continue to have confidence that we will still answer 999 calls quickly, we will continue to patrol our neighbourhoods, we will continue investigate high harm crime and bring offenders to justice.”

He said there are no plans for redundancies but said staff could expect ‘significant change’.

“It is not our intention to cause alarm. However, we want to be clear with the public and our staff about the type of Service they can expect to see in the coming years.”