Bill Brereton, former deputy North Wales Chief Constable and Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Delyn has hit out against Policing minister, local M.P. David Hanson, for the cuts in the number of police officers in North Wales.
Home Office statistics show that from March 2005 to March 2009, the strength of police officers in North Wales has dropped by 5% (81officers) and the predicted cut of 20% in the Home Office grant to police authorities could see further reductions in the number of officers on the streets.
This month, the Liberal Democrats announced their General Election plans to put 3,000 more police out on the beat to cut crime which would mean an extra 32 police officers on the beat in North Wales.
The extra officers, funded by the savings from scrapping ID cards, would be provided over the course of a Parliament with every area in Wales benefiting.
Bill Brereton said:
“Fighting crime has to be our number one priority and to do this we need more police on the beat. As a former police officer, I know that the presence of police officers on our streets makes people feel reassured and if we are going to tackle crime seriously, we need the officers behind it. The Minister for Police, who represents my constituency, is fully aware of the need to have more police on the beat, yet in North Wales and in the other forces in the country, police officer numbers have been falling.
“It is very concerning that during the good economic times of the past few years, the Labour government has allowed the number of officers to fall. As we now face difficult financial constraints, who knows what impact this could have on crime levels in Wales.
“The Liberal Democrats are the only party that wants to cut crime by putting more police on the streets. We would rather have more police officers and catch more criminals than continue with unnecessary and expensive ID cards.
“With so many forces seeing cuts in numbers, this is the right time to be promising a longer arm for the law.”
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