Peter it is the same here in essex, police stations are being closed at an alarming rate. Custody suites are overloaded and it can mean a 50 mile journey followed by a 4 hour wait just to book in a prisoner. We have no camera vans anymore and only 2 traffic garages for the whole of Essex. Traffic officer numbers in the last 5 years have been cut from 274 to 75 ! One major RTC can tie up the whole of a traffic shift for hours leaving no cover for the rest of the county. EP currently have a recruiting campaign for Specials because they can't recruit enough regulars because starting pay has been slashed, pensions decimated and experienced regular officers are leaving in droves due to the terrible working conditions and new unworkable IT systems. In 2 0 years I've never known such low morale and such high sickness levels due to stress.
