Without further funds, the Lincolnshire Chief Constable has stated that he will have to let go of around 400 police.
Paul Gibson issued the warning a few days after his Essex and Metropolitan Police counterparts warned that if budget deficits are not addressed, they would also have to reduce staff.
Mr. Gibson told the BBC that Lincolnshire Police would need an additional £57 million over the next three and a half years to sustain current levels of operations because funding had not kept up with population growth.
The bottom line is we can't police on a shoestring.
Lincolnshire Chief Constable Paul Gibson
“I would need to be taking maybe more than 400 police officers and police staff out of the organisation,” he said, adding that the force’s 60 neighbourhood officers could be at risk.
“At what point does a police force lose its viability? We’ve got very good people who do good things with the resources they have at their disposal and I’m hugely supportive of that.
“The bottom line is we can’t police on a shoestring.”
Among pledges announced by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer last week was a guaranteed every neighbourhood will have a named, contactable police officer responsible for dealing with local issues.
Labour had already pledged to put in place 13,000 police officers, PCSOs and special constables by the time of the next election, which would bring the total police workforce to a level above its 2010 peak.
An additional £100 million next year would pay for the recruitment of around 1,200 police officers, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said.
But since Sir Keir’s announcement last week, Ben-Julian Harrington, Chief Constable of Essex Police, said his budget gap for next year is about £34 million and that he had written to the Home Secretary to raise concerns about the financial position.
He said around £27 million of the £34 million budget shortfall was pay, but cited heating, lighting, fuel and buildings as costs.
“The bottom line is… we’ve squeezed the lemon and it’s pretty dry so there’s not many more efficiencies to have around this,” he said, warning there could be a “reduction of about 200 officers
In a report submitted to the London Policing Board, Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said the forces faces a £450 million budget shortfall in 2025/26, meaning that 2,300 officers and 400 staff could have to be cut.
The Met is able to make £100 million in savings, but the Commissioner’s report said: “The financial constraints we face in 2025/26 mean we will be forced to take tough choices to reduce the service we offer Londoners.”
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