North Yorkshire cuts warning after police deployment

Police officers in North Yorkshire have expressed "deep concern" over funding cuts after some officers were deployed outside the county for most of August.

At one point, 100 officers were deployed outside of the county, North Yorkshire Police Federation said.

It said officers were sent to London shortly after the start of the riots, and officers had also supported Greater Manchester and West Midlands Police.

The force said staffing levels were "maintained" during the deployments.

North Yorkshire Police has previously said it will have to cut 210 staff posts over the next four years as the force looks to plug a funding gap of £24m.

'Backfilled officers'

Sgt Mike Stubbs, from the federation, which represents rank and file officers in the county, said: "Our concern is that we have officers deployed elsewhere in the country and as the government cuts start to bite, the requests for support from other forces are going to come in thick and fast.

"We are going to find more and more frequently that North Yorkshire officers are deployed out of North Yorkshire."

Temporary Assistant Chief Constable, Iain Spittal, said: "Whilst we have been supporting other forces round the country, we have maintained the staffing levels that we anticipated that we would need within in the organisation.

"If we've had to use officers that were [scheduled] to work, we have backfilled them through the use of overtime."