Don't waste your chance to save police services

The Police and Crime Commissioner Elections are the public's last chance to save policing services from privatisation, UNISON warned today.

As hundreds of UNISON members gathered for a demonstration outside Cardiff City Hall, where delegates from across the UK had gathered for the annual UNISON Police and Justice Conference, the message was clear - use your vote, or lose your public policing services.

Ben Priestley, UNISON national officer for police staff said:

"This is the public's last chance to keep policing services public. People need to use their vote in the Police and Crime Commissioner elections on 15 November to elect a candidate that is committed to keeping those services public.

"Privatisation of the policing and probation services will lead to fragmentation, a race-to-the-bottom in terms of service quality as well as undermining public trust in the service. Police staff are there to protect the public, not to line the pockets of shareholders.

"These elections mark an important turning point in our campaign against police privatisation; opinion polls show that the public do not want their policing services to be privatised, so they have to use their vote carefully if they want to keep their services public."

Peter Saville, Branch Secretary, Kent Police UNISON said:

"We're really concerned about the way this government is going down the road of wanting to hive off everything to private contractors. We will lose the ethos of policing, and the police staff behind the scenes."

John Green, a member of Kent Police UNISON branch said:

"We provide a really good public service, and we can't afford to let the Conservative government take us down the privatisation route. Its not going to be better for the public; it means some rich fat cat friends of David Cameron will get richer while the service goes down as a result."

The Police and Crime Commissioner elections are taking place on 15 November, and once elected, candidates will decide the future direction of police services in terms of privatisation and outsourcing.

A recent survey from the union revealed that more than 60% of the public do not want policing services to be privatised.