An Update from Durham's Police and Crime Commissioner... Calling on the Government to Fund the Front Line, Not Costly Mergers

The events of last week have shocked communities across our region. 

We have mourned the tragic deaths of two police officers PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough, who went to work to protect the public and never returned home to their families.  They were killed when a car carrying five young men, travelling the wrong way along the A66, collided head-on with their police vehicle. Seven lives were lost that night.

And the shock has not ended there. 

We have seen homes rammed and vehicles deliberately set alight. These have been extraordinary and deeply disturbing events that have left families grieving and communities frightened. 

For residents watching these events unfold, there is an understandable question they are asking me: do our police have the resources they need to keep us safe? Despite everything that has changed in policing, Durham is still 120 officers short of the strength we had in 2010. Cleveland is around 200 short. These missing officers matter.

They matter when residents want to see neighbourhood police in their towns and villages. They matter when we need officers targeting drug dealers and organised crime gangs. They matter when dangerous drivers need taking off our roads. And they matter when major incidents happen and policing suddenly needs significant numbers of officers on the ground.

For the past five years, I have lobbied government to return the police officers we have lost and replace the outdated and unfair funding formula, so money follows crime, risk and need. 

I have also asked for the same precept freedoms as Wales to enable me to invest in the priorities local people tell me matter to them: neighbourhood policing, roads policing, tackling anti-social behaviour and going after the criminals causing the greatest harm.

Cleveland PCC has highlighted that another force, despite having around half Cleveland's recorded crime levels, receives around £20 million more in annual funding. For Durham, around £10 million could restore the 120 officers we need to get back towards our 2010 strength.

Yet instead of addressing these long-standing funding inequalities, forces across the country are now facing the prospect of potentially expensive structural reform, including police force mergers.

I am not against reform. I have always supported collaboration where it makes policing stronger, improves services and saves taxpayers’ money. But reform should address the challenges the public are actually concerned about. 

People aren’t asking for bigger police forces. They are asking for more police officers to patrol their neighbourhoods.

Greater Manchester Chief Constable Sir Stephen Watson has suggested these mergers could run into billions of pounds.

If billions of pounds of public money can potentially be found for a costly bureaucratic restructuring, surely £10 million can be found to restore Durham’s missing 120 officers and fix a funding system that continues to disadvantage forces facing high levels of crime, vulnerability and demand? 

My message to Government is simple:  Spend taxpayers’ money strengthening the frontline, not on a costly bureaucratic restructure that the public neither asked for, voted for, nor was promised in any manifesto.