Chief Constable Sara Thornton has said police forces across Britain should focus on tackling conventional crimes as opposed to “deserving issues”, such as hate crimes, warning they don’t have the resources and manpower to effectively deal with both.
On Thursday, speaking at a conference attended by senior police officials, the chief constable said it is increasingly hard to justify police spending time logging hate crimes and investigating incidents against dead people.
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“The simple fact is there are too many desirable and deserving issues," she asserted.
Stressing the importance of tackling robberies, assaults and other more conventional crimes, Chief Constable Thornton said there needs to be a “refocus on core policing.”
Earlier, the Police Federation slammed the British government’s decision to allocate £420 million (around $535 million at the current GBP/USD exchange rate) to fill potholes, while only granting around $200 million in additional funding for counterterrorism policing.
The organization, which represents over 100,000 police officers across 43 territorial forces in England and Wales, accused the government of “prioritizing potholes over crime”, warning they desperately need additional funding to take back control of Britain’s streets.
Major cities across the UK have witnessed a sharp rise in violent crime in recent years, and experts have attributed this to the government’s austerity program, which included crippling budget cuts to many police forces.
However, the government has dismissed these claims and is yet to earmark additional funding for conventional policing.
READ MORE: Police Federation Accuses UK Government of 'Prioritizing Potholes' Over Crime
