From the Commissioners website:
The Police and Crime Commissioner, Roger Hirst, has proposed a 3.25% increase in the Essex Police component of Council Tax, equivalent to £4.95 per year for a band D property….
….Mr Hirst said: “Essex police is a very lean force and have the lowest expenditure per resident of any police force in England and Wales. Essex also has one of the lowest council tax precepts for policing in the country and central government funding for policing remains constrained. My proposal to increase the Police proportion of Council Tax by £4.95 for a band D property, which is less than 10p per week, will help us respond to the changing nature of crime and provide more local, visible and accessible policing.”
The additional £3.1 million raised through this proposed increase will help fund a number of high impact programmes, including:
• The first phase of a programme to double the number of Special Constables to 700 by 2019.
• Increasing the number of police officers to 2,850, an increase of 41 officers for regular front line policing, for the Serious Crime Directorate and for additional firearm officers.
• Improving accessibility by adding 15 additional police staff in the Force Control Room to manage additional demand and improve the 101 contact service.
• Investment in dealing with digital and cybercrime and online fraud, to help tackle gangs and organised crime.
• Investment in the technology that supports the Mobile First Programme, increasing what officers can do via their smartphones on patrol, freeing up time to offer additional support to communities and improving performance management.
I think the majority of law abiding citizens would be happy to pay 20p / 30p / 50p a week more if it meant keeping police stations open and getting more than 41 coppers back on the streets.
I agree with you Oz but – Police response is already orchestrated to only
actively get involved in prioritized ” most serious crimes” , how far up
the list ‘not serious’ ranking is I don’t know. However recently, in Rayleigh,
a women had her bag snatched ( with her phone ) – her son tracked the
phone to an address in Rayleigh, gave it to the Police who have’nt responded.
It is an established fact that un-punished low level crime escalates to more
serious behaviour and Prisons clearly are not working ( re-offending rates ) –
Human nature only understands one thing , proper punishment is needed
at the first offence.
Jim, it’s the same old story, a massive disconnect between what people want to happen and what actually happens. I’m willing to bet that most people would like to see the little scrote that pinched the phone punished severely. But it won’t happen, somehow along the way we have been highjacked by do goody lefties more concerned about human rights than protecting victims.
Happily pay this for our overworked under funded force. – an interesting read: http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/755346/police-need-our-support