Police and Crime Commissioner for Hampshire and Isle of Wight, Donna Jones, has announced she will fund 50 extra police officers for the force to improve visibility.
The announcement has come after the Commissioner gained support from the Police and Crime Panel for her 2023/24 budget – which will include a precept rise for cash-strapped Islanders, as previously reported by Island Echo.
The Commissioner’s number 1 priority since being elected has been to increase police officer numbers.
She’s said:
“When I became Commissioner in May 2021, the public told me they wanted more police officers on their streets. The force pledged to recruit an additional 498 officers as part of the government’s National Police Uplift Programme but I wanted to go further which is why I promised another 102 on top of that, bringing the total to 600 by the end of March 2023.
“With this year’s budget, I am able to increase the number again bringing the total additional officers for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary to 650 by March 2024.
“I want to be clear and reassure people this increase is not filing vacancies left by those who have retired or left. This is a net increase.
“To date the force has recruited more than 550 additional officers which means they are on track to have recruited 600 by March 2023. With my pledge and your support, the Chief Constable will be able to recruit another 50.”
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The Commissioner’s proposal to improve police visibility with the extra funds followed an extensive consultation with local residents.
Receiving more than 8,400 responses from the public, the majority of people told the Commissioner ‘improving police visibility’ was their top priority.
Listening to these concerns, the Commissioner proposed an increase in the police precept of the council tax by £1.25 per month or £15 per year, based on Band D properties, which has been supported by the Police and Crime Panel.
This is an increase of just 6.34% which is below the rate of inflation, and it will raise an additional £12.29million for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary in 2023/24.
Is this 50 extra for the Island( as headlines state), or 50 extra for Hants &. IOW force. If the latter, how many will the Island actually get
“50 police office for the force” – ie NOT specifically for the island We will see a couple maybe. You can rely on IE to clickbait the headline.
we get 1..
“When Donna Jones became Commissioner in May 2021, the public told me they wanted more police officers on their streets”
Its almost 2 years and I’ve seen no coppers on the streets, so she wants 50 new officers don’t forget you need 25 cars to go with them Donna.
We ‘need’ the courts to back up the Police by giving prison sentences to many they now ‘let off’.
We need more prisons or less imported future inmates which make it impossible now for courts to give prison sentences to almost all because our prisons are full of non true British people.
Of course Donna etc can never say such, but doesn’t need to, as we know.
About 10% of the prison population are not of UK origin. But don’t let a fact get in the way of your comment.
Nice to hear the voice of reason on here the courts are to lenient by far and when they are the problem just gets bigger we need to toughen up on crime and stop listening to the dogooder brigade of smacked wrist culture .
and yes we need more prisons because there are to many people coming in to this country till we are bulging at the seams with no body bothered to vet them properly so some are villains and put more of a strain on our recourses.
Wrong, 50 cars. They only single crew nowadays…But wait, they’re supposed to be on the streets so they don’t need cars. Would be better to kit out all the IOW cars with ANPR…
All of them have ANPR.
The rise in precept doesn’t add up to paying for 50 police even for one year on the Island so it’s probably 50 for Hants AND IOW.
And, who vets these people who become trustworthy reliable, honest, decent representatives of the law?
What I see in the news no one vets them, if your a murderer, rapist and now a thief (taking more money from us for no improment in service) then you got the job.
More bs from Donna Jones as an excuse to bleed us dry.
Save money by getting rid of the cardigan lady.
Here we go again, HAMPSHIRE and isle of wight meaning a boost for Hampshire… sadly she lives on the mainland.. has no clue about the lawlessness on this Island, why and when did they join Isle of Wight with Hampshire ? Was there a vote ? Hampshire gets this, Hampshire gets that.. we are out of sight, out of mind !!
“Donna Jones, has announced she will fund 50 extra police officers”
, … she’ll fund them ,.. what personally,.. that’s very generous of her,.. but TBH if she can afford to fund 50 police officers, methinks she’s paid too much 😮
so 50 extra for Hampshire – that’s Southampton, Portsmouth, Winchester Basingstoke etc etc etc.
If we get 1 I’d be surprised.
Fantastic! Looks like she’ll be testing out her new ‘Police magic wand’ she got for Christmas to conjure up that many. Let’s just hope none of them are already criminals themselves (there’s a lot of it about).
Get them out of their fancy vehicle and on two feet then they may be more visible.
Shows just how close voting time is.
They all come out of the maggot holes to start the ££££ grabbing and dead end promises.
Councils turn next with the amout of ct they need to rip out of us
Exactly !! Next our seldom seen MP Seely .. will jump in with his words of wisdom and promise but at least the PCC can stand there smiling at the camera .. whilst you pay for privilege..
So Donna is funding 50 more officers is that out of her salary if it is she will till be over paid
Still only replacing what the tories got rid of, albeit at our expense via our council tax
won’t make any difference, takes 18 months to train them and in that time more than 50 will leave for one reason or another
This is very true. Read an interesting article on this issue. The numbers they have announced UK wide will only fill the gap of police retiring or leaving for a better job. To repair the damage the Tories have done we need 70,000+ new trainees. And that will never happen.
Nice job Donna, though if you wanted to increase visibility, you could have done that with cardboard cutouts. Shame you didn’t actually want to improve police capability.