The head of West Midlands Police has condemned budget cuts – and warned forces would struggle to cope with a repeat of the 2011 riots which swept Birmingham and other major cities.
Chief constable Dave Thompson said forces would face “real challenges” tackling new unrest following years of pressure to cut costs.
He urged the Government to boost investment, protect frontline policing including bobbies on the beat and cut bureaucracy.
He said: “The funding forces receive needs to be stabilised with real terms protection for policing as a whole.
“Last year we saw the prison service snap under pressure with riots in Birmingham Prison .
“We cannot afford this to happen to policing but the strain is showing from recent weeks and we’d have real challenges in dealing with something like the 2011 riots again.
“When things break recovery is never quick, and in policing it takes considerable time to recruit and train staff.”
Riots sparked by the police shooting of Mark Duggan in London saw civil unrest sweep the country in August 2011.
Vandalism and looting spread to Birmingham , Bristol and Manchester, with more than 5,000 crimes committed.
A total of 16,000 officers were deployed in London on one night alone in a bid to quell the violence.
The recent terror attacks in London and Manchester saw police resources required on a vast scale, with the latter atrocity leading to a nationwide deployment of officers.
Investment in counter-terror policing has increased, along with partial increases for firearms officers.
But, in a blog for the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) Mr Thompson warned much of the response to major incidents came from core police budgets.
“The firearms commanders, casualty bureau, custody staff, body recovery teams and uniformed officers patrolling crowded spaces that are so central to preventing and responding to a terror attack are paid for by core police funding,” he said.
“Over two thirds of the policing effort after the Westminster attack was not counter-terrorism funded.
“This figure will be much higher following the Manchester attack.”
Once inflation and cost pressures are accounted for there will be less money every year for forces on top of real terms cuts of 18 per cent since 2010, Mr Thompson warned.
The squeeze has left police and crime commissioners needing to increase local taxation “to the maximum” while many forces are using “considerable reserves to maintain current staff numbers,” he said.
“It’s also time to ask why a growing proportion of the police budget is being allocated to managing complaints or non-policing spend at a time when our core role is under strain,” he said.
