More than 20,000 off-duty police officers took to the streets today as they warned that Government cuts are putting public safety at risk.
The officers, from all 43 forces across England and Wales, donned black baseball caps with the words "Cuts are criminal" as they marched through central London to protest against the spending cuts and wide-ranging changes to their pay and pensions.
Police Federation chairman Paul McKeever told them: "We care very deeply about the communities that we serve. We have seen what happens when we have a Government that has given policing a very low priority.
"If you are cutting our jobs, then you are cutting the service we can deliver and the public's safety is at risk."
The officers, banned from striking under law, began marching from Millbank at around noon in a protest to show "the unprecedented attack on policing by this Government and the consequences that these cuts will have for public safety".
The last time police took to the streets, then-home secretary Jacqui Smith was blamed for a high-profile pay dispute in January 2008 and was ridiculed at the federation's conference.
Home Secretary Theresa May, who asked former rail regulator Tom Winsor to carry out the most wide-ranging review of police pay and conditions in 30 years, will address the officers at their annual conference in Bournemouth next week.
Policing Minister Nick Herbert wrote an open letter to all officers telling them he and the Home Secretary were "constantly impressed by the work you do for your communities" but insisting that "all organisations have to keep pace with the modern world".
The Government wants to recognise the professionalism of officers, reduce bureaucracy and ensure officers are rewarded "for the excellent job you do", he wrote.
But difficult decisions on pay and pensions are needed and, as the service spends some £14 billion a year, it would not be right if officers were exempt from this, he added.
He insisted that officers will continue to earn more than other emergency services, continue to take overtime and continue to retire earlier than most people in the public sector.
Police pensions will also still be among the best available, he wrote.
Mr Herbert sought to reassure officers over the greater involvement of private firms in policing, saying: "It will continue to be a public service, accountable to the people."
Private firms can provide some services to create savings, he wrote, but "private contractors are not, and will not be, permitted to exercise the powers of arrest and detention given to sworn officers, beyond the limited detention and escort functions already allowed".
He went on: "Policing is, and will remain, a public service, and the office of constable will remain the bedrock.
"We must take some tough decisions and do the right thing for the whole country.
"But I want to assure officers that we will continue to value, in the Prime Minister's words, the finest police service in the world."
Prime Minister David Cameron's official spokesman said: "The Government inherited a very tough fiscal challenge. We are having to make spending cuts across the board.
"We think the reductions in spending on the police are challenging but manageable and that the police will still have the resources that they need to do the important work that they do."
The stream of officers took one-and-a-half hours to pass by the Home Office, booing as they went and leaving a sign saying: "Policing by consent, established 1829, dismantled without consent 2012".
Among those marching was Scott Jeffreys, 35, who has worked for Derbyshire Police for 14 years and is based with its road policing unit.
The police constable said: "We've come down today to increase public awareness about the cuts and the effects that they're having on the service we provide.
"But it's not just about our pay and pensions. We're also here because we're concerned about the stealth privatisation of the police service.
"Our chief constable takes the view that this is a route that we won't go down, which I'm glad about, as I think the privatisation route is a very dangerous one.
"If private companies are contracted to do a job for us and then we're low on money, they will still have to get paid, so the losses will be in frontline services again.
"There's been no public consultation, no parameters seem to have been set and no guidelines seem to have been issued.
"Why give money to private organisations whose sole reason for existence is to make profit when as a police service, every penny we get goes on policing?
"That's important and that's how it should stay."
Andy Springthorpe, 47, a sergeant with West Midlands Police, said he was also not only protesting about how the cuts would affect him personally.
The Dudley-based officer said: "It's not just about our pensions, it's about the changes the Government wants to impose that will fundamentally change the way we police our communities.
"Why repair something that isn't broken? It's very frustrating."
Sgt Springthorpe, who has been a policeman for more than 22 years, said his force was subject to Regulation A19, meaning that officers with more than 30 years of service are forced to retire.
He said: "As far as I know, we haven't recruited any new officers since 2010.
"Because officers with 30 years' service must forcibly retire, we are losing some of our most experienced officers and not getting new ones in.
"Added to that, a lot of our younger officers are resigning due to fears for their job in the future and the fact they can get better-paid jobs elsewhere."
Mick Robinson, 57, who served with the Met Police for 32 years before joining British Transport Police as a sergeant, said he was supporting the rights of his two sons who are both serving Met officers.
He said: "Successive governments have trampled on the rights of the police.
"We're the only people in the country apart from the Army that can't withdraw its services. It's a fantastic turnout here today."
His son, Police Constable Shaun Robinson, 30, had also taken his wife and two young sons to the march, and they were all wearing baseball caps in support.
He said: "What's being done is being called modernisation, but it's not modernisation.
"At times we barely operate with what staff we've got. We're told we've got record numbers of police, but that's record numbers with an ever-increasing population. It's just ludicrous."
Pc Robinson, who has served with the Met for 11 years, added: "When I signed up to the force there were certain commitments like working night shifts and weekends, but I signed up in the understanding that I would be getting certain things like my pension back.
"But now it seems they are going back on that contract, which to me is quite shocking really.
"I think things are going to get worse before they get better, but the people who will really suffer are the public."
Inspector Eddie Boyle, 46, who has 28 years' service and currently works for West Midlands Police, said: "We appreciate the situation the Government is in financially and we want to play our part in addressing it.
"But we almost feel like it's a personal attack on the police service."
Another officer, who did not want to be named, said he was "starting to not feel proud of being a police officer any more".
The 51-year-old Surrey Police Constable said: "I've been in the police since I was 17 and I'm just disgusted.
"I'm disgusted that certain political parties can pretend that they represent law and order.
"The way this Government attacks police, I don't believe it is just about austerity, I think it's ideological.
"I feel strongly about my role in protecting people but they don't care about the safety of the public."
He added: "The police don't respond to half the crimes they used to, which is down to new policies, and we've closed so many stations down now that you wonder how can it possibly be safe?"
Chris Hoare, who became the country's first Home Office-approved "community crimefighter" during Gordon Brown's leadership, was also taking part in the march.
The 67-year-old former jeweller had travelled down from Birmingham to support his local police team.
Mr Hoare, who has raised thousands of pounds for West Midlands Police in his voluntary work as a community crimefighter, said his Edgbaston estate was "overrun with all sorts of crime" but his local police team had transformed it.
He said: "I can't praise the police highly enough. It's ludicrous what's going on with these cuts and the Government should be ashamed of itself.
"The strength of support for the police in my community is very strong, and there would have been many more of us here today if there had been more coaches."
Actor Graham Cole, who starred in long-running police drama The Bill, also addressed the protesters ahead of the march.
He said: "I'm here as I'm a member of the public. I want to see your faces in my streets.
"The cuts are profoundly wrong. I know for a fact that you represent every single rank-and-file officer who can't be here."
Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, said he would recall Mr Winsor to give further evidence next month "so that I can put forward some of the concerns I heard today".
PA
