Residents willing to pay more for policing: claim

 

A recent survey commissioned by Dyfed Powys Police, to find out what residents thought about the spending cuts faced by the service, showed that people were willing to pay more council tax if it meant keeping officers on the street.

 

The survey, carried out in late November last year, asked a sample of residents what areas they thought should be protected from cuts, what areas should be cut and how willing they would be to pay more council tax to protect front line policing.

 

Results show that out of those questioned 75% are strong minded about maintaining the number of local police officers and protecting them from cuts, with 84% stating they were willing to pay an extra 15 pence a week in their council tax to ensure this happened.

 

“We wanted to ask the public where they thought the cuts should be made,” said Deputy Chief Constable Jackie Roberts, who is leading the force change programme.

 

“The budget set for the Force and the changes in the allocations of grants from government means we have to make significant savings. We need to change the way that we work, and review the services we provide whilst maintaining our strong record on low crime and high detections.

 

“We also wanted to find out how willing residents would be to pay an extra 15 pence a week on their council tax.

 

“The results show that front line policing is so important that people living in Dyfed Powys force area are willing to pay that little extra in their council tax. They also show that our work to streamline back office processes is in line with where residents think we need to focus the cuts to our spending.”