Police Commissioner Kim McGuinness has announced a multi-million pound investment package in Northumbria Police as part of her “force fit for the future” plans.
The Police and Crime Commissioner has backed the Chief Constable with a raft of investment measures that will see more police on the streets, new equipment for officers and the expansion of cyber-crime teams.
The latest spending plans are set out in the Commissioner’s new Medium term Financial Strategy and include funds to ensure more officers are available for the chief constable.
The Commissioner is allocating around £4.7m to hire additional officers to take the force above the national recruitment targets, ensuring a faster replacement of the 1,100 officers lost to the force as a result of ten years of austerity. This is on top of the £5m earmarked by Government for new Northumbria Police officers.
The Commissioner’s crime fighting investment will mean the force has additional resources to prevent violent crime, take on organised crime and tackle ‘County line’ drugs gangs, while making sure anti-social behaviour is tackled head-on in communities.
Alongside the frontline increase comes a major new IT system update. The new technology is seen as essential if the force is to remain up to date and able to respond fast to emerging incidents. Around £3m will be used for more skills training and specialists staff alongside the complete overhaul of the force’s outdated IT system.
The latest force budget also includes a £600,000 increase in the cyber-crime and fraud section.
This additional investment package comes on top of the day to day budget funds available to meet policing requirements
As part of those existing financial plans, the PCC will also be agreeing a £16m investment package in vehicles and equipment, including body armour, body-worn video and Tasers.
Kim said: “I am committed to giving the police the tools to fight crime, while making sure we are working to prevent crime.
“These financial plans are the biggest investment in our force in a decade. We’ll have more specialists and more police on our streets with the equipment they need to keep us, and themselves, safe.
“I am investing in the frontline above and beyond what the Government is offering, and giving the force the resources it needs to tackle emerging crime trends.”
The financial plans are part of the Medium Term Financial Strategy published by the Police and Crime Commissioner this week. This covers the spending assumptions for the next four years. Key new investments for this year include:
| · Increasing the number of officers over and above national targets, as outlined above, investing a total of £4.7m directly into police officer resources, during 2020/21. This will provide additional resources to prevent violent crime, take on organised crime and tackle ‘County line’ issues, while making sure anti-social behaviour is tackled head-on in communities. | £4.7m |
| · Significant investment in ICT capabilities and capacity, to provide the necessary resources to gain maximum benefits available from the associated capital investment in new ICT systems and technologies; ensuring the Force is more fit–for-purpose and better positioned to keep people safe and fight crime, by providing new skills and specialists to keep communities safe. | £3.4m |
| · Increasing investigative capability and capacity. | £0.7m |
| · Investment in Digital Forensics to effectively manage the increasing demands arising from investigations involving electronic devices and material held in digital format. | £0.6m |
| · Protecting and providing appropriate services to the most vulnerable members of our communities. | £ 0.4m |
These items are in addition to the regular force budget items which pay for day to day policing.
ENDS
