The Police and Crime Commissioner for Durham, Ron Hogg is one of a number around the country digesting the impact of the government’s autumn statement ahead of the funding settlement which is expected mid-December.
Mr Hogg said: “Whilst the Force has been praised by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary for “keeping ahead of the curve” in terms of achieving necessary savings, further expected cuts during this period of government imposed austerity threatens the fight against crime at a local and national level.
Privatisation and outsourcing is not the answer and I plan to spend a lot of time meeting partners to talk about developing opportunities for collaboration. I believe we can do things better ourselves if we get our processes right and that we should make the best use of the resources we have.
My priority is to keep the communities of County Durham and Darlington safe and I don’t believe ongoing funding cuts will help. I believe it is vital commissioners address these issues with the Home Secretary and make our opposition to these unacceptable cuts clear.”
