Student tuition fees protesters 'major draw' on police resources

12 April 2012

Student protests against tuition fee rises are causing a "major draw" on police resources, a chief constable said today.

The Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police Peter Fahy said plainly that officers policing protests were not "chasing burglars" as he revealed the force's daily bill for such events was around £100,000.

Mr Fahy said future campaigns by students would impact on local policing, although the force did not experience the violent scenes of similar protests in London and enjoyed the co-operation of students and universities.

He said: "We have a clear duty to facilitate these peaceful protests, while ensuring minimum disruption to residents, businesses and shoppers.

"Each day of protest has cost the force and of course the public around £100,000, but most of this has been paid for in normal duty time by taking officers away from their local policing duties. This also requires substantial levels of policing and specialist resources from a host of other agencies and organisations.

"These events have a major draw on our resources, and the ability of GMP to plan and resource these events, often at very short notice, is a testament to the professionalism and commitment of our staff.

"This clearly has a knock-on effect for the rest of the force in terms of dealing with other incidents and regular policing of communities. To put it bluntly, officers policing protests are not chasing burglars."

Mr Fahy said the force would continue to review its policing arrangements and further co-operate with protest organisers in a bid to keep costs down.

He said it was "unfortunate" that certain protests were infiltrated by outsiders who he said felt they would get attention only if they took some form of direct action.

He added: "These are national issues affecting many people and we fully understand the wishes of those wanting to voice their feelings.

"However, I want the people of Greater Manchester to be aware that there is an inevitable impact on the force and this shows again that modern policing is not purely about catching criminals."

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