Jobs axed in Thames Valley-Hampshire traffic police merge
New joint operations unit will see roads police shared across borders to save £6.7 million
TRAFFIC officers from Thames Valley and Hampshire are to merge into a new unit as part of a cost-saving measure which will see 119 posts from across both forces axed.
The move is expected to save £6.7 million by 2012/13 as Thames Valley Police looks to cut £12 million from its budget for this financial year, with Hampshire Constabulary attempts to save £20 million.
The Joint Operations Unit will cover roads policing, firearms and operations support, which contains elements such as dogs and training, meaning beat officers and community volunteers will be trained to use speed guns.
A spokeswoman for Hampshire Constabulary, Sarah Julian, said it did not mean traffic officers from Thames Valley would be forced to attend incidents in Hampshire leaving their regular patch without cover.
“Where communities may see a difference is in those places where Hampshire and Thames Valley force areas share borders, for instance in the north of Hampshire where it borders Berkshire,” she said.
“There are many things to work though, but we hope to eventually be able to deploy the nearest roads policing unit to help, particularly in the area of major or critical incidents. This will help us to continue to provide an excellent roads policing service to those border areas.”
She said effectiveness of the operations unit would be monitored frequently and the forces would continue to look for areas where services could be shared with minimal disruption or impact on front-line staff.
The move was agreed by police authorities in November 2010, and the first senior officers took up their posts in April 2011.
The two forces already share IT resources, hosted by Thames Valley Police, which saw Hampshire IT employees transfer over in February 2011.
Thames Valley Police covers Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, while Hampshire Constabulary covers both Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
