West Midlands Police force 'smallest in its history'
- Published
Leaked documents say West Midlands Police needs £18m a year "to stand still"
West Midlands Police is the smallest in its history after thousands of job losses, leaked documents show.
The second biggest force in England and Wales after the Metropolitan Police has lost almost 2,300 officers since 2010.
MPs met the policing minister to call for more government funding, which has fallen by £145m since 2010.
Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson said pressures are "much greater" in the region with total recorded crime up 14% in a year.
In March 2017 there were 6,756 West Midlands Police officers compared to 8,626 in 2010.
The force has also seen a significant fall in its number of PCSOs which over the same period have dropped by more than half from 811 to 397.
It is not just crime that is increasing, according to the police and crime commissioner, but "crimes that need a lot more police time," for example sexual offences, which have increased by 25% since this time last year, and terrorism.
Caroline Spelman, Conservative MP for Meriden, is one of the 14 MPs lobbying the policing minister Nick Hurd.
She said the West Midlands "is one of five hotspots in the country for terrorism" and that the police force "needs extra resources to tackle new types of crime".
The leaked documents, put together by the PCC office, show how West Midlands Police received 74% more 999 calls than the average for forces across England and Wales, more than even the Metropolitan Police.
West Midlands Police has two and a half thousand fewer officers than it had in 2010
The West Midlands Police Crime Commissioner received £441m from the government for 2017/18, which is £40m less than the national police funding formula calculates it should receive, according to the documents.
'Criminals will win'
Sixteen percent of regional police funding comes from a council tax precept, but Mr Jamieson said an annual £5 increase in 2016 did not mean more available funds because the government "just took the same amount away from the central grant", which "put the burden on the local tax payer".
"If [the government] don't do something about it, then I'm afraid what we will see is the criminals will be winning in so many places," Mr Jamieson said.
A Home Office spokesperson said: "We recognise that demand on the police is changing and we are very sensitive to the pressure they are under.
"We are reviewing demand and resilience, as well as police plans for greater efficiency."