The West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner says 37 police officers could be lost at the force unless the government funds the 2.5% pay rise it has announced.
Whilst David Jamieson welcomes the Prime Minister’s announcement that she intends to increase pay for police officers, he is warning that unless she also increases police funding the result could be further cuts.
It is estimated that the pay rise could leave West Midlands Police needing to find approximately £1.8 million from its own budget. As it stands, the government is insisting that existing police budgets should be used to pay for the rise.
West Midlands Police has lost £175 million since 2010, resulting in the loss of more than 2,000 officers.
Commenting on today’s announcement that the government plans to increase police pay without increasing force budgets David Jamieson, said: “The remarkable decision to not fund this pay rise is the final kick in the teeth for West Midlands Police which has endured years of cuts.
“Since I’ve been Commissioner I’ve had to watch as the number of police officers plummet and crime rises.
“Whilst I welcome any plans to pay our hard working officers a salary which they all fully deserve, I am very concerned that there are no plans to fund the pay rise.
“If this doesn’t change then the net result will be the loss of around 37 hard-working police officers which will only make the job of fighting crime even harder.”
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