Free our police from their desks, says leading councillor Jason Zadrozny

Written by Nottingham Evening Post on Thu 19th Nov 2009

A NEW councillor member of Notts Police Authority has called for the county's officers to get more admin support to free them up for frontline duties.

County Councillor and Ashfield Liberal Democrat Group leader Jason Zadrozny said: "I went to give a statement to police a couple of weeks ago and a senior officer sat handwriting my statement for two hours. There was nothing on tape.

"Police are bound to their desks by bureaucracy which is why the arrest rate is so low."

The Evening Post reported in March this year how Notts Chief Constable pledged to spend "every penny" of the force's budget for 2009/10, after £2.75m was not spent of the Constabulary's budget for 2008/9.

Coun Zadrozny believes a lot of that was down to difficulties in recruiting Police Community Support Officer posts, which the force said had now been filled.

He said: "We need to put them on the street and fill the high visibility gap. There are that many vacancies all the time, that it's difficult to assess the impact of bobbies on the beat.

"We need to balance this with more admin support for police officers. We need to get police officers back on patrol again."

Coun Zadrozny, who became a councillor member of Notts Police Authority last month, says he is delighted that Ashfield recently obtained its "full complement" of police officers after being a key campaigner for more bobbies in the district.

He is also calling for the force to do more to publicise the Policing Pledge, launched earlier this year outlining the service the public can expect from the force.

"I do not think the public know it exists," he said.

"I went to a recent Safer Neighbourhoods meeting and only one person picked up on it.

"I do think the Policing Pledge is good. These can be quick wins."