Chair Rachel Hanley: Policing about much more than crime

POLITICIANS must appreciate that policing is about much more than crime to get a proper grasp of the job, the Chairman of Lancashire Police Federation has said.

Rachel Hanley was speaking after Home Secretary Amber Rudd and Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott made their inaugural addresses to the Police Federation of England and Wales at their Annual Conference.

The Minister failed to heed officers’ warnings about how unprecedented levels of demand are making police officer’s jobs impossible, despite hearing the message multiple times, Rachel said.

Rachel added: “She did not understand the demand issue at all, and she is still living in cloud cuckoo land if she thinks that it is all about crime. We know the reality of the situation is that 80% of what we deal with is not crime related; crime is just a very small part of it.

“Whether you agree with her figures that crime is up or down, it really doesn’t make any difference because that is not what is taking our time up – it is everything else apart from crime that is creating the demand.

“Should the Conservative Government get re-elected and she remain Home Secretary, Amber Rudd needs to get in the real world and get a reality check on what’s really going on out there. A lot of officers from round the country raised the issue, from small forces, big forces, rural forces. They were telling her that officers are crumbling, policing is broken and the service needs investment.”

Ms Rudd heard of a police service in crisis that will break if more resources are not put in or more demand taken out.

But she replied in her address on Wednesday: “Crime is down by more than a third. That’s a record everyone in this room should be proud of.”

Ms Rudd did accept however the invitation from a number of forces to visit their area and see how much officers are struggling.

Rachel was also disappointed with the Home Secretary’s unwillingness to make concessions over pay rises should the Tories be re-elected.

The conference heard that public sector pay will remain capped at 1% until at least 2019 under a Conservative Government.

Rachel concluded: “She told us there was no scope for movement on the pay rise, however she was quick to point out that the 11 per cent pay rise received by MPs is recommended by the remuneration board and they had to accept it.”