James O'Brien Takes Aim At Theresa May Over Police Cuts
5 November 2018, 12:21
As knife crime soars, James O'Brien asked how Theresa May got away with arguing that she could cut police numbers without reducing the quality of policing.
Four people have been killed in the last five days in London as the knife crime epidemic threatens to spiral out of control once again.
And James believes Mrs May's decision to cut police numbers during her time as Home Secretary has played a key role in that.
Speaking on his LBC show, he said: "How the hell did Theresa May get away with arguing that you could cut the police without cutting the quality of policing?
"How did that happen? Where were we? It happened on our watch.
"I played several times a clip of that community police officer of the year warning her specifically, publicly and personally that cuts to community policing would cause all manner of problems, culminating quite probably in some sort of terror attack being visited upon these islands.
"And the police officer who gave that warning, his argument was we don't just feel collars, we also gather intelligence. So if you are aware of something unfolding in your area that troubles or concerns you, you will know your police community officer and you will talk to her or him. And they will perhaps be able to prevent something terrible from happening.
"So you cut the numbers and then you complain that they can't do the job as well as they could before? You cut the numbers, of course you're going to have more problems."
