Appeal for 44 extra officers is backed by police crime panel (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Appeal for 44 extra officers is backed by police crime panel

6:40pm Tuesday 5th February 2013 in News By Dolores Cowburn, Bradford Chief Reporter

An extra 44 frontline officers will be recruited by West Yorkshire Police after councillors backed a call by the Police and Crime Commissioner to ask council tax payers to foot the bill.

The Police and Crime Panel, which has powers to scrutinise and support the Commissioner’s activities, unanimously voted yesterday to give the go ahead for a 3.8 per cent rise in the police precept to pay for the officers.

The rise equates to a penny a day for the two-thirds of households in West Yorkshire that fall into council tax bands A and B. For those households in band D it will mean £5 a year.

After the meeting in Wakefield, Commissioner Mark Burns-Williamson said asking for a rise in the precept was not one he had taken “lightly”, but said it was necessary to protect the number of frontline officers in neighbourhood policing teams across West Yorkshire.