It’s fast approaching that time of year again when the Police Authority must look ahead to decide how we can best invest public funds to improve policing. This is the final year that I, and indeed the Police Authority, will set the budget for the force due to the arrival of Police & Crime Commissioners later in the year and my retirement in May but it promises to be every bit as challenging. The decisions we will make now will not only impact on the next 12 months but in future years and it is crucial we do not leave ourselves exposed to risk.

2012 is a busy year as far as policing is concerned and will place additional pressure on our resources at a time when we are already financially-stretched. There can also be no let-up in our efficiency work and we must continue to explore every possible avenue to reduce our spending and keep on track with our savings targets.

It is of course natural for residents to be anxious when they hear of the financial difficulties facing the force and the impact this has on resources however I think now is the right time to remind our communities of the huge progress that has been made in performance and service delivery recently, regardless of the major cutbacks we have experienced. In the first eight months of the year, the force continued to drive down crime by -5.1% while Serious Acquisitive Crime (SAC) fell by -10.2%. These kinds of reductions are a remarkable achievement given the hardship we have faced financially and should go someway to reassuring residents that we are doing everything in our power to make them safer and maintain the service they rightly expect. While it is true that only so much meat can come off the bone, we are confident that our passion for success will continue to deliver results.