The Met and Essex Police chiefs warn of possible cuts to police numbers

The Met Police and Essex police chiefs have warned that dues to budget shortfalls they may face being forced to cut the number of police officers on their so-called beat.

The Met will have a £450 million shortfall in 2025 and as such 2,300 officers and some 400 staff face being without a job.

Essex Police has said they are facing a £34 million shortfall and may have to let go 200 police officers.

Ben-Julian Harrington, Chief Constable of Essex Police, said, “To put it bluntly, the books don’t balance.

“My budget gap for next year is about £34 million.”

He added that the “vast majority of that comes from pay progression, it comes from increased salary costs of the officers and the staff.”

Harrington has written to the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper explaining the financial shortfalls and the risk of job losses.

He warned there could be a “reduction of about 200 officers in Essex” as a result, but cautioned, “I want to be careful because I’ve not made decisions.

“The discussion is not finished but ultimately, I may have to make choices about what services I can deliver.

“I don’t want anyone to doubt, certainly the people of Essex, our commitment as a force to carry on reducing crime and anti-social behaviour, protecting victims, bringing people to justice and keeping the county safe.

“But the bottom line is… we’ve squeezed the lemon and it’s pretty dry so there’s not many more efficiencies to have around this.

“And ultimately if I’ve got less people they can work as hard as they can but if there’s less of them they can only do less.”

The Met chief Sir Mark Rowley said they can make £100 million in savings, “The financial constraints we face in 2025/26 mean we will be forced to take tough choices to reduce the service we offer Londoners.”

The Met Police could make cuts from January that might affect Royal Parks Police, forensics, dogs and the mounted branch, intelligence and Flying Squad to make those savings.

Sir Mark told a meeting of the London Policing Board, “Next year we want to continue to strengthen performance, we want to continue to reform but we’re going to have to do it in the context almost certainly of a very, very challenging budget settlement.”

He added, “This is going to be really difficult for our people because we’re asking more of them.

“We’re expecting policing to improve.

“They’re massively committed and particularly the people in the areas that are going to bear the brunt of these tough choices.

“That’s tough on them because of the expectations and how they feel about the message it sends to them which isn’t intended.

“That’s going to be a difficult leadership challenge for us over the next year.”