The Government (Home Office) sets the national efficiency and productivity target for the police service. This is the level of savings that we must make through efficiencies over a three year period. A three year (2008/09 to 2010/11) target of 9.3% reduction of total spending was initially set but this was later increased to 10.3%.

Cambridgeshire Constabulary has to identify £12.9 million of efficiencies by the end of the financial year 2010/11 in order to meet the national efficiency and productivity target. This is an ambitious target, considering that Cambridgeshire is poorly funded and the constabulary has one of the lowest numbers of staff and officers per head of population in the country. As a result, it is only by achieving value for money in all activities that effective policing services can be provided to the citizens of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) is responsible for examining the efficiency of the police service in England and Wales. In 2008/09 they compared Cambridgeshire Constabulary to our seven most similar forces from around the country. The following facts and figures come from their report and show how well Cambridgeshire is performing compared to other similar forces.

Police Officers and Staff

• Cambridgeshire has the lowest police officer cost per head of the population at £92 compared to the average of £105.
• The number of police officers employed increased by 2% in the period from March 2005 to March 2009, with a 126% increase in full time equivalent police community support officers (PCSOs) over the same period.
• Police constables form 64.8% of the total operational workforce in Cambridgeshire. This is 4% below the average of 68.8%.
• Cambridgeshire matches the average number of PCSOs employed by the similar force group at 7%.
• There has been a 47% increase in staffing of the emergency calls control room over the last 3 years.
• Cambridgeshire has the 3rd highest number of full time equivalent tactical firearms officers per 1000 population.

Staff Turnover and Sickness

• Both staff and officers in Cambridgeshire have below average sickness levels, although long term absence is high at 4.1%, compared to the average of 2.7%.
• Cambridgeshire appears to have the highest overall turnover of staff (14.6% compared to the average of 9.5%) and police officers (9.5% compared to the average of 6.2). However, this may reflect the cessation of a block of employees engaged in fixed term contracts at the cessation of a project in April 2005.

Offences

• Cambridgeshire has the second highest number of crime offences per 1000 population (85.2 per 1000 population) when compared with the similar force group (73.3 per 1000 population).
• The total number of recorded offences in Cambridgeshire is down 3% over the last three years.

999 Calls

• Cambridgeshire control room staff took 190 calls per 1000 population in 2008/9, with an average of 699 calls being taken per member of staff. This is well above the average of 631 at similar forces.