THE Isle of Man’s new Chief Constable says every effort will be made to protect frontline services in the wake of planned cuts.
But Gary Roberts said previous cuts has already reduced the force to ‘little more than a front line organisation’.
He had already warned there is a danger that further budget cuts could hit either neighbourhood policing or the fight against organised crime - and ‘something has got to give’.
Home Affairs Minister Juan Watterson announced earlier this month his department is having to make £2 million of savings in the next two years - and it would be impossible to achieve this without cutting staff numbers. He said staff numbers are being looked at across the board – but it is yet to be decided where the axe will fall.
The Chief Constable told the Examiner: ‘The Constabulary is reviewing its structure and all of the ways in which it delivers its services.
‘Every effort will be made to protect front line services, but the 17 per cent cuts that it has already met mean that it is now little more than a front line organisation. By the UK’s definition of front line policing, the Constabulary is the most public facing police service anywhere.’
Home Affairs, which includes both the police and fire service, has the highest ratio of salary costs as a proportion of its budget of any department - 75 per cent. Ninety per cent of the cost of the constabulary is staffing. There are currently 236 police officers. The constabulary’s budget has fallen from £15.8 million to just under £14 million – and a further 4 per cent cut is projected over the next three years.
The island’s Fire and Rescue Service has some 53 full-time and more than 100 retained firefighters. Kevin Groom, the island’s new chief fire officer acknowledged on his appointment that may have to reduce the size of the service. ‘We have to look at both stations and staff,’ he told reporters in January.
As a whole, the DHA has lost 44 full-time equivalent head count since 2010-11. Central staff numbers have more than halved to nine. Among the proposals for future savings is the development of an on-island training facility for firefighters which would reduce the cost of travel and accommodation associated with UK-based training.
The DHA is also planning a new custody block at police headquarters, to consolidate all Douglas detention facilities into one location. This will enable the police to vacate the current Lord Street police station site – freeing it up for development. A police presence will be maintained in lower Douglas by opening a station in the former Hanover Street School.
Mr Watterson said the demolition of Victoria Road prison, the sale of Onchan police station and the transfer of the Isle of Man Fire and Rescue Service headquarters had already generated savings and significant capital receipts. The department has also combined the prison and probation services and introduced more flexible terms and conditions for staff - helping to produce savings of more than £4 million since 201011, and £8 million since the department’s budget peaked in 2007-08.