Police ‘Forced to Deprioritise Phone Thefts and Shoplifting’
13th June 2025
A lack of funding will force police to deprioritise crimes such as shoplifting and mobile phone theft and there will be fewer officers patrolling parks and attending schools, ministers have been told.
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, announced an extra £2.1 billion for policing over the next three years, a real-terms increase of 1.7 per cent each year between 2026 and 2029.
However, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said the funding would leave a £1.2 billion shortfall and would not be enough to maintain the workforce, let alone cover the extra costs to meet the government’s priorities of halving violence against women and knife crime and recruiting 13,000 extra neighbourhood police officers.
Britain, the New California.