Cost-cutting plans to axe unfilled posts and put Hertfordshire police officers back in the control room

Thirty police officers could be moved back into the force control room, and dozens of unfilled posts axed, in a bid to cut Hertfordshire Constabulary costs by over £7million next year.

The planned ‘savings’ include the loss of 20 unfilled police officer posts and 75 unfilled PCSO posts.

But police chiefs have stressed officer numbers will remain at an all time high and that the constabulary will deliver a ‘first rate service’.

The proposed savings are detailed in the Police and Crime Commissioner’s budget plans, that were endorsed by the Hertfordshire Police and Crime Panel on Thursday (February 8).

According to the plans, the reduction in police officer posts could save £1.27m next year (24/25) while the reduction in PCSO posts could save £600,000.

However, none of the PCSO or police officer posts under threat have yet been filled.

Posting 30 existing police officers to the force control room could, says the report, save the constabulary a further £1.3million.

That’s because, currently, staff members and police officers are being called in to cover unfilled shifts in the control room as over-time.

And, says the report, savings could be made by filling control room vacancies with existing police officers.

Also highlighted in the report are plans to make a further £207,000 savings by continuing to improve the ‘management of over-time’.

And a £700,000 saving is said to reflect the ‘substantial number of police staff vacancies’ – much of which it says has been ‘deliberately engineered’ to offset some of the overspend on police officer pay.

Meanwhile, a further £1.277m of savings have been earmarked by freezing non-pay budgets at 2023/24 levels, which the report acknowledges ‘is a real terms cut’ and ‘deliverable albeit with some manageable local impact’.

In the report Chief Constable Charlie Hall says, the constabulary has worked hard to maximise the budget available for frontline, operational policing services, by ensuring spending on other services is efficient and only what is necessary.

“Despite the financial pressures, I remain confident that Hertfordshire Constabulary will still deliver a first-rate service which I know the Police and Crime Commissioner, on behalf of the public, rightly demands.

“Police officer numbers are at an all-time high and will remain at those levels throughout next year as the force consolidates on this growth by developing and building experience amongst those young in-service officers who are the key to the future.”

As part of the proposed budget, Police and Crime Commissioner David Lloyd has drawn-up plans to increase the policing element of the council tax by the maximum allowed.That means that Hertfordshire residents living in a Band D property would see an increase of £13 – from £238 this year (23/24) to £251 in 24/25. And that would raise an additional £6million for policing in Hertfordshire.

Proposing the increase Mr Lloyd says that it’s thanks to investment in previous years that Hertfordshire “remains one of the safest places to live and work in England and Wales” – with the fifth lowest level of recorded crime.