Essex Police should use extra government funding announced today to prevent the loss of its remaining police community support officers (PCSOs), says UNISON.
All 99 PCSOs and 65 other police support staff were threatened with redundancy earlier this week, with the force saying it didn’t have enough funding from government.
Cuts would pile pressure on any remaining staff and leave already-stretched police officers struggling to cope, warns the union.
More than half of front desk roles are also set to go, leaving just four in-person contact centres open to the public.
Scrapping PCSOs would undermine government pledges to return to neighbourhood policing, says UNISON. The prime minister pledged last month to put 13,000 new officers and PCSOs into neighbourhood policing.
The force was due to receive £2.2m from the initial £100m earmarked funding, but this has now been doubled to £200m.
UNISON called on chief constable BJ Harrington and police, fire and crime commissioner Roger Hirst to abandon the plans now that the new cash is available.
The union urged the pair to listen to staff, residents and politicians to understand the damage cuts would cause to local communities.
UNISON Essex Police branch secretary Ben Turner said: “Police staff and officers are already stretched to their very limits. Continuing with these cuts would pile more pressure and extra work on any remaining staff, putting residents’ safety and even lives on the line.
“The government is pouring millions of pounds into re-establishing neighbourhood policing, but the staff who would make this a reality in Essex have just been given their marching orders.
“The chief constable and commissioner must use the extra funding to scrap these cuts.”