Cuts !! Saving Money...

[enforce-logic forum administrator]

Just do away with targets and let police officers police their area according to it's needs.  Targets have ruined our schols, hospitals and the police.  Senior officers spend fortunes massaging the targets just to keep budgets.  It will never work, we all know how the crime stats are fiddled by changing and adding different categories, the public aren't stupid either, lets concentrate on serving the public on a common sense basis, record the stats to see what is happening and let area commanders set targets according to the need of their area.  Leave thepolitics out of policing!

[Juggernaught]

What frustrates me is that my council tax bill has a line on that says Durham Police Authority  £153.41.
I am not nieve I know that money comes from else where.  But if the government stopped putting all their money in one big pot and instead ring fenced it from the offset, as the council tax bill implies, example £300 per houselhold or whatever, maybe the accountants could budget better and stop destroying lives.  Perhaps we could go completely outragous and have a section for beneifts, sub heading lazy buggers who don't work because it pays more to be on benefits.  Was that one step to far? 

In summary, reduction in police budget but no reduction in police charge on the council tax bill.

[Juggernaught]

Ranting over

How about bringing services back in house, IT, cleaning, maintenance etc......I don't care what argument you put forward it is not cheaper to pay a company to supply staff, the profit margin has to be taken  into account. 

[enforce-logic forum administrator]

I can never work out how it is cheaper to hire a car for an officer who is on a course or something rather than pay the officer 40p a mile.  By the time they pay the petrol as well, and have to pay the hire car company for cars that end up not required etc, then have those hire cars blocking car parking spaces, and on top of all that deal with all the admin involved.  They will tell you it is cheaper, there must be more to it, it can never be cheaper, so WHY?

[Tenbears10]

My force is looking at bricks and mortar. They are seriously looking at which stations are going to be sold for development. It is a fix in that the force will get capital and also lose the expense of running that station but it is short term as once a station is sold it is gone they will never be able to buy it back (or a replacement in the same area) and costs of policing an area which has doubled in size by shutting one station must increase significantly.

The public do still want to see someone face to face rather than phone up and if you close the stations they can't so they just ring 999.