Worried whistleblower cop claims there is 'dangerously low’ number of police officers in Milton Keynes

A worried cop has spoken out about the 'dangerously low' number of police officers struggling to keep Milton Keynes safe.

The whistleblower police officer, who cannot be identified for their own protection, said at times there are only two or three response officers available to cover the entire city.

Sometimes the situation is so bad that officers have be be "borrowed" from neighbouring areas in the Thames Valley force, they said.

In a letter to the Citizen, they wrote: "I am a serving police officer in Milton Keynes. I am writing to you to disclose the dangerously low number of police officers in Milton Keynes.

"This is not to win sympathy, it is to be honest and transparent to the people we serve and to make you aware of the situation to put pressure on senior officers to make changes as we are not being listened to."

He added: "The "safe minimum" of response officers in Milton Keynes is 18. Response officers are the officers you see in the typical "panda" cars. In this summary I am not including specialised roles such as firearms officers, traffic or detectives.

"All response teams in Milton Keynes often operate below this "safe" minimum number and we have to borrow officers from neighbouring areas such as Bicester or Aylesbury to increase our numbers, if those areas are above their respective minimum numbers themselves.”

The whistleblower explained how various duties take up the time of the 18 response officers on shift.

These duties include dealing with a prisoner in custody, where on one average MK shift there will be four or five such prisoners handed over, the officer said.

A further two officers are taken up with telephone appointments, while another two are often working on missing person cases, of which there is a "constant high volume" in MK.

On top of this, the officer says there is usually at least one cop on paperwork to complete enquiries from their workload of jobs.

"Depending on the shift before there could be scene watches if there has been a serious incident,” the officer added.

Another officer could be put on a cell watch if someone in custody is a self harm/medical risk. Or, they could be on "bed watch" if someone who has been arrested needs to go to hospital or if the Campbell Centre can't accommodate someone who has been detained under S136.

"With all the above taken into consideration, on the average shift in Milton Keynes I am disappointed to tell you that at the start of the shift there is normally about eight officers for the whole of Milton Keynes,” the officer claims.

"As shifts progress and officers become committed at jobs and make arrests etc this number drops and we often have only two to three officers covering the city.

"On my shift approximately half the officers have not completed their three-week blue light driving course, which dramatically hits response times."

The officer describes Milton Keynes as the busiest Local Policing Area (LPA) in Thames Valley, often holding the same amount of un-resourced jobs as Oxford, High Wycombe, Slough and Aylesbury combined.

"An interesting fact is that Milton Keynes has around 10% of the TVP population but carries 25% to 30% of the force's workload," the officer said.

"Too much is being asked of us.

"We cannot continue investigating, responding and being proactive with the number of officers we have."

In response to the officer’s comments, Thames Valley Police Chief Superintendent Michael Loebenberg said: “We’re sorry to hear this from our officer; we know policing is challenging and making things better for our teams is an absolute priority for the force.

"We can reassure our communities that we have minimum staffing levels and strict processes that tell us when to bring in officers from other policing areas, and from other departments, to support.

“In addition to this, over the last three years the force has continued to recruit more officers and these are making their way into local areas, including Milton Keynes.”

He added: “Frontline officers face a range of demands in the very nature of being the first line of response to incidents and this includes interviewing suspects in custody and carrying out enquiries to find missing people. As well as our frontline teams, such as the one this officer works in, there are hundreds of other officers also working 24-7 in our Roads Policing, Armed Response, and Proactive and Neighbourhood Teams. Many more detectives are also working around the clock to investigate a wide range of different crimes.

“Our frontline officers face many demands and we will continue to support them and be proud of how they rise to the many challenges they face.”