Police cuts 'perfectly achievable'

The Centre's Director, Richard Garside, has appeared on Sunday Politics South West in a feature about cuts to Devon and Cornwall police.  

He said:

'Against the background of what have been very generous budget increases to the police all through to 2010 and the decade leading up to the 2010 General Election, the cuts are actually not that significant and I think are perfectly achievable.'

According to Sunday Politics South West, budget cuts and a new funding formula mean Devon and Cornwall police could lose £54 million and go from a historic high of 3,500 police officers to 2,200. The show was aired on Sunday 8 November and is available to view on BBC iplayer until 6 December. The feature on policing starts from around 35 minutes into the programme.

Richard has previously written comment pieces about how cuts to police budgets and officer numbers provide an opportunity to rebalance public policy. Generous police funding settlements in the decade to 2010 caused huge expansion of the police force in England and Wales and crowded out other services. 

You can also take a look at work Tim Hope and Waqas Tufail did for us on alternatives to policing.