Police hit hard in this year’s Budget

The Police will have no choice but to cut back on crime prevention and make hard choices on what they respond to after a budget cut of more than $40 million, says Labour's Police spokesperson Jacinda Ardern.

“The last budget saw a cut for the Police and resulted in pretty significant cut backs. Yet another cut in Budget 2014 will have caught many off guard.

“The Police have trimmed back on absolutely everything they can already. We have seen significant cuts to support staff numbers, station closures, a reduction in vehicles and cuts to staff training, all of which is having an effect.

“As the Police Association said ‘something will break’.

“Things have got so bad for the Police that they had to resort to making a bid for money from the Justice Sector Fund last year to cover $6 million in redundancy costs.

“The areas the Government has cut from are crazy, including investigations and crime prevention. This completely undermines the Police's strategy of Prevention First.

“The cracks were already starting to show for our frontline officers before this extra cut. Resolution rates for some areas had taken a hit and police resignations are at a four year high.

“The Police do a tough job, and they needed the Government to back them this Budget. Sadly, this is a budget mistake that the public will ultimately suffer the consequences of,” says Jacinda Ardern.

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