What I want is less crime in the first place
Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Emily Spurrell says the thing she wants more than funding for new police officers is for there to be less crime in the first place. Speaking at a fringe event on crime and anti-social behaviour at the Labour Party Conference earlier today, Ms Spurrell said: "we have to look at prevention".
"Since 2010," she said, "Merseyside Police has lost over 1,200 officers and staff. We have started to see those numbers increase a little bit, and towards the tail-end of the previous government, we were starting to see more investment in police officers. But Merseyside still has 450 officers and PCSOs less than it had in 2010. And obviously that has a massive impact on the police's ability to do their job.
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"When you think about the demands coming into policing, if you think about how long policing is taking to respond to certain issues, the vulnerabilities that police officers are dealing with now, it's a much bigger challenge.
"But for me, that isn't the biggest damage we saw from the previous government. While I desperately want more money and more funding for our police officers, what I really want is less crime in the first place. And we know the police are not the people who resolve that problem. We have to look at prevention."
Crime across Merseyside has fallen by 14% in the past year, with decreases in major offences including gun discharges and knife crime. There was also decrease in neighbourhood crime - including domestic burglary, vehicle-related crime, theft from the person and robbery - by 37%.
Ms Spurrell went on to describe the measures taken by Merseyside Police to prevent crime happening in the first place. She said: "We have been really prioritising prevention, recognising the damage that's been done to public services. When you think about youth services, when you think about mental health services, and drug and alcohol services, and the lack of opportunity people are getting. When you think about poverty - that's a huge driver of crime, and you're more likely to be a victim of crime living in a deprived area."
The PCC cited schemes such as Community Cashback as being particularly effective in crime prevention. She said: "Community Cashback is the money that is taken out of the hands of criminals. As PCCs we're trying to reinvest in communities to try and tackle some of the issues that we saw over the summer and help communities to heal."