This week saw my proposed budget for Warwickshire Police come under the scrutiny of the members of the Warwickshire Police and Crime Panel, who I am pleased to say gave their unanimous support for my plans to recruit up to 100 extra police officers and staff across 2019/20.
To do this, I will need to increase the Police Precept (the portion of local Council Tax which pays for policing) by 11.77% from April, which equates to around £2 per month for an average Band 'D' property.
Increasing the precept is not something I do lightly, as I am acutely aware that no tax rise is ever going to be universally popular and I certainly did not set out in politics to become a tax collector. That's why I listened to the views of the public, police officers and staff as well as elected representatives, community groups and business organisations from across the county before taking this decision. My public consultation which attracted more than 2,400 responses from Warwickshire residents and over 1,600 individual comments, giving me a wide range of feedback.
I have been careful to take account of the comments put forward, especially those with contrary views to my own or those which suggested alternatives to the rise. The feedback from the public was however very clear: people want to see more visible policing in the communities where they live and they want to see an improved response from the police when they call them. Many are prepared to pay a little extra each month to achieve this, with 72% from the online survey giving their backing to a rise of £2 per month. Around three quarters of these also indicated they would have been willing to support an even greater raise, had it been possible.
The majority of people in the county will in fact pay less than £2 extra a month (the table below shows the charges for each banding) and the clear indication from those who gave their feedback is that they are willing to pay a little extra if that means additional boots on the ground.
The budget I am setting now will allow for the recruitment of substantial numbers of officers over the next 12-18 months. They will be bolstered by a small number of extra police community support officers and crime investigators, who can provide additional support and expertise where needed to bring criminals to justice. This will take time to implement fully but I am confident we can build on the momentum of the current Warwickshire Police recruitment campaign, which is set to deliver by the early summer the additional 50 officers I funded in this year’s precept.
Taken together, these increases will mean that over the next few years the numbers of police officer posts in Warwickshire will be heading back up to just under 1,000 and I am sure that is something that will be warmly welcomed by the public.
You can see a more detailed breakdown below of how the precept increase will be spent and what the extra officers and staff will be used for below.
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