A political row has broken out over Labour claims that community policing is being cut by Tory Police & Crime Commissioner for Cheshire John Dwyer, with Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) numbers set to fall after being championed by the previous Labour PCC David Keane.
At the Police & Crime Panel meeting on 4 February 2022, Mr Dwyer announced that the number of PCSOs would be reduced from 200 to 160. This was universally opposed by the cross-party members of the Panel, recognising the importance of community policing. PCC John Dwyer will instead divert resources to police officers and a further 82 backroom staff roles.
Mr Dwyer also came in for criticism over the 4.4% increase in the police precept. When he claimed strong public support for the increase, a Conservative Councillor on the panel pointed out that just 3.3% of Cheshire residents had responded to the consultation, undermining his claims of endorsement from the public.
But Mr Dwyer hit back stating the claims were “misleading at best!”
Cllr Robert Bisset, Police & Crime Panel member, said: “Conservative PCC John Dwyer has previously assured Police & Crime Panel members that there were no plans to change the current allocation of PCSOs and that the 122 communities would have their PCSO numbers maintained.
“Now he has revealed his plans to slash the number of PCSOs – reversing progress under the former Labour PCC to deliver community policing. This model was nationally acclaimed for its results, and rightly hailed by Cheshire Police as an example of how to support communities.”
PCC John Dwyer has also announced plans to remove face to face contact desks from 11 towns across the county, down from 16. Unless residents live in Blacon, Crewe, Warrington, Widnes or Macclesfield they will have no face to face contact desk to visit for support.
But Mr Dwyer hit back saying:”To say that community policing is being cut and suggest that communities will no longer have a Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) is misleading at best.
“At the most recent meeting of the Police and Crime Panel, I made a public commitment to continuing the community policing model, which sees each of the 122 communities in Cheshire assigned its own Officer and PCSO. Community policing is at the heart of everything I do as Commissioner and the Chief Constable shares that commitment.
“The consultation on increasing the police precept by 4.4% – below the current rate of inflation – which I took to the public in January received more responses than any precept survey carried out by either the previous Commissioner or me in my first term. With 70% of respondents supporting it, more people than ever backed my precept proposal this year.
“63 of the 82 staff being recruited as a result of the budget I approved will sit in our call centre taking 999 and 101 calls, as well as our major investigations, force intelligence and serious and organised crime teams. We are investing in and recruiting people to take down hardened criminals and to describe them as ‘backroom’ is simply wrong.
“We are putting more money into making the police more contactable, through the aforementioned extra call centre staff and a £1.3 million investment in public contact through the budget. Average 101 call waiting times have already reduced from 27 minutes in August to around 6 minutes now.
“As well as wanting more investment, people always feedback to me their desire for police resources to be used efficiently. Currently, some helpdesks across the county are vastly underused at the same time that people still raise issues with 101. That’s why a consultation has been launched on the future of some helpdesks where usage is low and I encourage people to have their say.”
