Police chiefs warn Labour's anti-crime promises will not happen without extra cash
Police chiefs are warning the government will not hit its anti-crime targets without "substantial investment" in policing in next month's spending review.
In a letter published in The Times, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, NPCC chairman Constable Gavin Stephens, and the chiefs of Merseyside, West Midlands, Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire police , warned of a return to the "retrenchment we saw under austerity" without increased funding for police forces.
Sir Keir Starmer has promised to halve both knife crime and violence against women and girls, and to recruit 13,000 more police officers.
But the senior police officers said that will not happen without extra cash, calling this moment a "once in a generation opportunity to reform the service".
The letter warned of "increasing public demand, growing social volatility - such as last summer's disorder — and new serious and organised crime threats emboldened by the online world", along with increased "global insecurity".
The move is a bid to secure more funding for the Home Office in the Chancellor's spending review in June, which will set budgets for government departments until 2029.
The Times reports the Home Office will have to make cuts, after what the police chiefs call a "decade of underinvestment in policing".
The senior police officers say that after global instability led to an increase in defence spending, the same reasoning should also be applied to policing to tackle '"the linked threats and growing demands".
They also warn that the government's sentencing reforms announced last week, which will see more criminals serve community sentences, are likely to increase pressure on policing.
That contradicts the view of former justice secretary and author of the sentencing review David Gauke, along with other prison reform experts, who say community sentences are proven to cut reoffending.
Justice Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has also agreed to allow some criminals, including violent and sexual offenders, to be released early for good behaviour.
In a separate plea, other senior crime bodies have also called on the government for more funding amid pressures from the plans to release prisoners early.
The heads of the Metropolitan Police, MI5 and the National Crime Agency were among those who warned that plans to release prisoners early could be 'of net detriment to public safety' in a letter to the Ministry of Justice.
They also argued they would need the 'necessary resources' in the upcoming spending review to deal with the plan's impacts and maintain order, The Times reported.
'We have to ensure that out of court does not mean out of justice, and that out of prison does not mean out of control,' they said in a letter sent before the formal announcement.
Conservative shadow minister, Helen Whately, said Labour 'needs to sort this out' and 'take responsibility' for ensuring there were enough prison places, adding: 'They are the guys who are in government now.'
A Home Office spokesperson said: 'We are backing the police to protect our communities and keep our streets safe with up to £17.6 billion this year, an increase of up to £1.2 billion.
'This includes £200 million to kickstart putting 13,000 additional neighbourhood police officers, PCSOs and special constables that the public will see back on their streets and patrolling communities, as part of our Plan for Change.'
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: 'This government inherited prisons in crisis, close to collapse. We will never put the public at risk by running out of prison places again.
'We are building new prisons, on track for 14,000 places by 2031 – the largest expansion since the Victorians.
'Our sentencing reforms will force prisoners to earn their way to release or face longer in jail for bad behaviour, while ensuring the most dangerous offenders can be kept off our streets.
'We will also increase probation funding by up to £700 million by 2028/29 to tag and monitor tens of thousands more offenders in the community.'
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