Protecting Morley Policing Team

As readers will know I have been a big supporter of Morley Policing Team and especially the PCSOs who contribute greatly to the teams success. Although a sceptic when PCSOs were first introduced I am now utterly convinced that they have been a great thing and have materially contributed to falling crime levels. A new report from the Police is again showing a fall in crime levels over the last year - despite severe financial challenges - and that work is a tribute to all the Policing Team who are doing an excellent job.

And that is why I am cocnerned at Labour Leeds City Councils proposal to reallocate PCSOs away from Morley. A present proposal doing the rounds it to shift one of the five PCSOs paid for by Leeds City Council to other areas - presumably Labour areas with higher crime rates. This would mean a 20% cut back in the number of PCSOs paid for by Leeds walking the streets of Morley.

We are opposing this as it seems to us utter madness to stop providing the level of support that will mean we can keep on top of crime levels. The PCSO story is a successful one in Morley and that's because they are a strong visual presence on local streets. Their presence and the intelligence they pick up contributes in a big way to making our streets safer and also contributes to higher detection rates. That keeps criminals where they belong - behind bars!

We will resist such a cut back. It will be interesting to see if our local Labour Colleagues will do the same or if they follow the Party Line and capitulate to those lower Policing levels. As ever - we will report back their voting record!