As a Cambridgeshire MP, the issue of policing is raised frequently by my constituents, concerned by a lack of visible policing and changing rural crime. Cambridgeshire is the fastest growing county yet is the fourth-worst funded police force with things only set to get worse. There is a wider problem across the UK, with police funding becoming more stretched and unequal, this is clearly something that needs to change and that I will continue to hold the Government to account on.
The problem arises from hopelessly out of date statistics, with population data being from 2012. Cambridgeshire, therefore, receives 21% less Government funding per capita than the national average. Lack of funding means fewer police officers on our streets, less crimes being tackled, and constituents feeling less safe. Many residents complain that they never see a police officer in their community. Without visible policing, constituents won’t know who to look to for dealing with crime, and subsequently criminals may feel emboldened in their actions. This has led to some local villages turning to private security firms which is simply not acceptable. Taxpayers should not have to spend more of their hard-earned cash on top of taxes to stay safe.
This lack of visible policing is not just a sentiment, it is statistically true. Just one named officer covers the area of two large towns and over eight villages in between. This is an area covered by two MPs and more than a dozen councillors. Frustrated with this severe lack of urban policing I asked the Government repeatedly ‘How big an area should one officer be expected to cover?’. Yet despite this question, I received no concrete response from the Government.
The Government also failed to clarify details on the rural crime strategy and how it will benefit Cambridgeshire specifically. Rural crime is a specialist area requiring officers who understand how to tackle it. In my recent Adjournment debate, in which I yet again raised this issue, I congratulated the work of the Cambridgeshire rural crime action team, whom I have recently attended an operation with and was impressed with their effectiveness. However, a significant challenge that faces those tackling rural crime is that it often goes undetected and unreported. Thus, I would urge anyone who sees any sign of hare coursing, a 4×4 with no plates and a couple of lurchers in the back, for example, to report them.
In the debate my colleague Patrick Spencer, MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, highlighted a pertinent question on the topic of policing, raising the issue of rural crime shifting towards modern slavery. Modern slavery can be and is hidden in rural communities. Indeed, in the middle of St Ives a cannabis farm had been uncovered by the Cambridgeshire constabulary and there had been found several individuals who had been living and working there, presumably under duress. This is exactly why we need more funding and more policemen on the streets of Cambridgeshire who are aware and ready to tackle these crimes.
Although Labour has committed to recruiting 13,000 new members of the police, yet it is unclear as to where these individuals will be placed, thus we could easily see zero new officers in some Cambridgeshire constituencies.
Regardless of if more money is thrown at policing nationally, what remains imperative is that Cambridgeshire receives a fair proportion of this funding, so we can support our rural communities and make them feel safe. As the Rt Hon Steve Barclay, MP for North East Cambridgeshire highlighted in the debate, Cambridgeshire is ‘an area that is growing quickly’, as seen with expanding housing developments like Alconbury Weald. Therefore, now is the time to rethink how we support areas like Cambridgeshire with policing through fairer and up-to-date funding.
As I said in the debate, and I will reiterate here: my constituents deserve to feel safe. They deserve to receive the full protection that the Government can provide, and they deserve to not pay over the odds to receive that.
Police funding formulas must be made more fair
