YEP says: West Yorkshire's top cop is right to be brutally honest about police resources

CHIEF Constable Dee Collins should be congratulated on her brutal honesty today. She no doubt felt emboldened by the comments of other senior figures in the police.Charles Bronson Court Case day one recap: Prisoner accused of biting governor at HMP Wakefield
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Police search for man

Two weeks ago Sara Thornton, head of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, warned that while recording complaints of misogynist abuse might be “desirable”, police did not have the time or resources. She was backed by five chief constables. A few days later Cressida Dick, the Met Police Commissioner, publicly agreed saying such work risked diverting officers from fighting the top priority of reducing violent crime.

It has opened up the debate on the tough choices our forces are having to make. Put simply they have too many crimes and not enough resource to fight them. That’s not to say the police are “not bothered” about someone hacking into our computers or touching us inappropriately - but given a choice between looking into those crimes and trying to get knives off our city’s streets, the knives come first.

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Now Ms Collins has put this into stark context for us warning those twin pressures of tight budgets and rising demands are putting policing at tipping point. The Home Office needs to stop talking about how much more money has been put into policing and start listening to these very real concerns of our most senior police officers.