![](https://emergencyservicestimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ESS-Button-resized.png")
The Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) has released a short film to mark 10 years since the government accused it of “crying wolf” over police budget cuts.
Ten years ago, the government publicly accused the PFEW of “crying wolf” over police budget cuts. This was after police officers warned her what deep and damaging cuts would do to policing.
In her speech at the PFEW’s Annual Conference in Bournemouth on 20 May 2015, then Home Secretary Theresa May challenged the warnings and made hollow assertions that crime had fallen, and officer numbers were rising, despite reduced funding. She insisted that policing could do more with less and dismissed genuine concerns about decimation of neighbourhood policing as “scaremongering.”
A decade later the state of UK policing, once considered one of the best in the world, presents a complex picture. Crime rates have gone up (44%), officers are leaving the service in their droves (resignations are up 142% since 2018), officers’ pay has plummeted by 21% in real terms since 2010 and public confidence in policing has declined.
The PFEW has produced a then-and-now short film to bring to perspective continued government apathy and the resultant impact on the police service in England and Wales.
“Policing is the service of the first and last resort, the service which cannot say no. But government’s neglect of the plight of police officers and continued contempt in recognising, and compensating, their unique role in society, holding the front line, is stretching them to breaking point.
“We recognise that a different political party was in power at the time and this short film is not to pitch the two political parties against each other. It is to highlight the erosion of the police service over the past ten years, when we cautioned the government that cuts would have far reaching consequences. The government’s response was that we were crying wolf. Well, today, the wolf is not just at our door, it’s staring straight into our eyes. We were right then; we are right now.”
PFEW Acting National Chair, Tiff Lynch.
Through this short film (watch it below) the PFEW has also reinforced its latest campaign, Copped Enough – What the Police Take Home Is Criminal. “The police officers of our country are not asking the government for a favour. They are asking for their rightful entitlement – fair pay and working conditions,” added Tiff.
The PFEW has released the short film to the national media, and on its own channels, to mark 10 years of one of the fiercely contested speeches of the former Prime Minister.
To read similar articles, check out our Leadership channel
