Chief Constable Craig Guildford is among six of the UK’s most senior police chiefs who say they needed a larger workforce and called for “serious investment”.
He joins Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, NPCC chairman Constable Gavin Stephens, and the chiefs of Merseyside, Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire police in citing the “increasing public demand, growing social volatility and new serious and organised crime threats emboldened by the online world”.
In a joint article, they say the emergency release of people from the prison system and recommendations in the sentencing review would put more pressure on policing as “we will inevitably be drawn into the control of criminals who would previously have been in prison”.
The policing settlement in Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ spending review, due in June, would directly influence whether forces are able to deliver as many begin to “lose officer numbers and shrink”, they said.
“A lack of investment will bake in the structural inefficiencies for another three years and will lose a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reform the service.”
The heads of the Metropolitan Police, MI5 and the National Crime Agency are also among those who have warned that plans to release prisoners early could be “of net detriment to public safety” in a letter to the Ministry of Justice .
They say they would need the “necessary resources” in the upcoming spending review to deal with the plan’s impacts and maintain order.
“We have to ensure that out of court does not mean out of justice, and that out of prison does not mean out of control,” they said in a letter sent before the formal announcement.
The sentencing review released last week recommended measures to tackle prison overcrowding.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood
She also agreed to scrap short sentences of under 12 months and have more criminals serve sentences in the community instead.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are backing the police to protect our communities and keep our streets safe with up to £17.6 billion this year, an increase of up to £1.2 billion.
“This includes £200 million to kickstart putting 13,000 additional neighbourhood police officers, PCSOs and special constables that the public will see back on their streets and patrolling communities, as part of our Plan for Change.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “This Government inherited prisons in crisis, close to collapse. We will never put the public at risk by running out of prison places again.
“We are building new prisons, on track for 14,000 places by 2031 – the largest expansion since the Victorians.
“Our sentencing reforms will force prisoners to earn their way to release or face longer in jail for bad behaviour, while ensuring the most dangerous offenders can be kept off our streets.
“We will also increase probation funding by up to £700 million by 2028/29 to tag and monitor tens of thousands more offenders in the community.”
