Police £10m short to tackle serious crime

Cheshire Police has to make up some of the money after the collapse of a proposed police forces merger, which was supposed to save money by pooling resources.

Peter Walker, Warrington's representative on the police authority, said: "We are at the beginning of trying to sort this out. What we don't want to do is move money out of local policing."

The shortfall is in protective services that include fighting serious crime, terrorism, dealing with floods or policing the motorways.

While common crimes like burglary have gone down, organised crimes linked to the cocaine and crack drugs trade have increased.

The main concern is level two' crime - gangs crossing the border. Most drug dealing in Warrington is done by gangs based in Liverpool and also Manchester.

Government inspectors think small police forces are less equipped to actively put pressure on these criminals.

At a strength of 2,207, Cheshire is right on the Government's minimum threshold. The forces' most recent inspection said it was good' at investigating major crime and fair' for level two crime.

These crimes can generate huge costs. The murder of a drug dealer by a gang based in Manchester, for which Lymm man Christopher More is still wanted, cost Cheshire £800,000. Its entire major crime budget for the year was £500,000.

Additional funding pressures come from contingency planning, as for the high-risk chemical sites in Widnes and Runcorn, and for policing the M62 and M6.

The police will be looking at three sources of savings.

They are pooling civilian staff with other forces, making some police responsibilities and roles to civilians, and increasing use of office based inquiry work.

"That might free up more officers to go into tackling the level two organised crime," said Brenda Cowling, police press officer.

The police authority recently made an extra £1m available for intelligence work and financial investigations to combat level two criminals.