Job losses could be on cards for police
Staff numbers at Northamptonshire Police may have to be reduced as the force looks for ways to make savings, new assistant chief constable Andy Frost has warned.
The police chief has returned to work with the Northamptonshire authority six years after he left to work in Bedfordshire.
While he insists the last thing he got into policing for was to make people redundant, he has warned Government savings targets could mean job losses in the future.
He said: "Our main challenge at the moment is working out how we're going to police the community to the same or better standard, with the same or less money.
"Our aim is for the public not to see any reduction in service, which is going to be challenging."
The force will not find out how much money it will have to save until the Government makes an announcement in October.
Mr Frost said: "We're working on a worse case scenario now of having to make savings of 25 per cent, and we know that with the money we do get, we have to make the most of it.
"We're looking to save every bit of money we can before we look at staff levels, but clearly at some point we're going to have to look at a reduction, whether that's in police officers or in back room staff we're looking into at the moment.
"I certainly didn't join the police to make people redundant, but unfortunately over the past two years I've had to do that and it's not easy."
Mr Frost began his policing career in Northamptonshire in 1987, spending four years as a patrol officer in Daventry and later working in Weston Favell and Corby.
He transferred to Bedfordshire in 2004 and for the last two years was the force commander for Luton.
He has described the contrast between Luton and Northamptonshire as large, not least because Luton has an airport and a greater ethnic mix than Northamptonshire.
He said: "Every town has its challenges and like Luton, Northampton has its own issues.
"But I'm very pleased to be back here. It's very much to me about coming home and I it's nice that I see lots of friendly faces as I walk around the place."
The 47-year-old has lived in Northamptonshire all his life and currently lives less than two miles away from police headquarters at Wootton Hall.
Because of the short distance between his home and new work place, he has pledged to cycle into work each morning.
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Wednesday 08 February 2012
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