Cuts could hit frontline jobs - chief

A MAJOR RESTRUCTURE of Staffordshire Police has been announced in the face of expected public spending cuts - and redundancies in frontline policing cannot be ruled out.

Police officers sharing facilities with other organisations and closer collaboration with neighbouring forces are two of the measures being considered as part of the Communities First programme announced by Chief Constable Mike Cunningham on Thursday.

The new structure, which is also set to include a change in division numbers, will come into force in April 2011.

Mr Cunningham said that the force was seeking to make best use of its funds as it prepares to face a cut of around £4 million in its budget for 2010/2011.

He said it was hoped that job numbers would reduce “naturally” but he could not rule out redundancies in the future including frontline policing positions. A planned take-up of 14 new police officers in May has been put on hold.

“We may be looking at a reduction in recruitment and I am not ruling out a recruitment freeze,” Mr Cunningham added.

Back office services such as IT, admin and finance management would be reviewed first, he said. There are currently four force divisions Chase, North Staffordshire, Stoke on Trent and Trent Valley and this number is also set for discussion.

But the force was not currently looking at closing police stations and there were no plans for merger with other forces.

“My honest opinion is I think the merger issue will never go away.

“But we are looking to see how we can get better value for money by sharing things like admin, human resources, IT and financial support.