Coventry police “emptying rubbish because of cutbacks”

A PC in Coventry has told Mercia police officers are being forced to empty bins because of cutbacks to the force.



PC James Griffin – who’s based at Little Park Street – has been speaking as officers and ultimately us begin to feel the pinch:

“We’ve got less cleaners so the cleaners are only cleaning offices every other day or once in three days. If your bins overflowing or smelly police officers have to do it, but while they’re doing things like that they can’t be doing the job they’re paid to do.”

In all, 2,250 jobs are predicted to go at the West Midlands force between now and 2014, including 1,000 officers, as they look at cutbacks of £123 million pounds.

Officers are already feeling the impact of the loss of 300 experienced coppers who are being forced to retire over the next year when they reach 30 years service to help save money.

PC Griffin says the move is already affecting morale and he and his colleagues are worried they will end up letting us down:

“The message that went out before about crime soaring was a bit strong – we don’t know that is going to happen. But I can tell you from my experience and what’s reflected by my colleagues, that crime staying constant would be too much for us to cope with, I can’t say how we could cope.”

Speaking when the AI9 retirement rule was brought in, a West Midlands Police spokesperson denied officers wouldn’t be able to handle crime levels:

“West Midlands Police have significant plans in place to manage the departure of these officers. Succession planning is part of core business, with the right learning and development opportunities and support in place to ensure continued levels of policing service.

“Our planned activity across the communities of the West Midlands in the coming weeks and months will hopefully reassure those worried about the impact of cuts that it is very much business as usual.”

Warwickshire Police have also started to force experienced officers to leave, but say the rule will only be used for a limited period of time.

I know it's the thin end of the wedge....

We had this years ago in industry. Cleaning staff were cut back, the workforce were made responsible for their own areas, even cleaning the canteen on a rota basis. We accepted it was better than seeing our colleagues being made redundant.