UK government laundering money to pay for police?

Everyone knows that police forces are always short of money: they are labour intensive (even more so in those countries that require massive amounts of paperwork to support arrests), increasingly communications and computer dependent (with the attendant cost in purchase and maintenance of such systems) and often required to change enforcement strategies to meet political demands.

So any funding is welcome. But in a classic example of "find the lady" the UK government announced late on 5th Febrary that it is to spend a greatly increased sum on the police.

The greatly increased amount is probably not what the government claims in its press release: "The Government will invest a total of GBP9,683 billion in police forces in England and Wales this year (2003/4) - an increase of £566 million and more than six per cent. Forces will receive further increases of at least four per cent in 2004/5 and 2005/6." First, it is likely that they don't mean "billion" but "milliard." And secondly, it is likely that they do not mean that, either and that it is meant to say "million."

It is probable that the true figure, therefore, is GBP9.683 milliard.

This is said to be an increase of GBP566 million.

So where does the money come from? Here is the find the lady bit: amongst the disclosures made by Home Office Minister John Denham is the comment that GBP51 million will be diverted from the Criminal Justice System IT fund. So that is money that has already been provided for in the budgets.

Around half of police funding in the UK is provided from central funds whilst the remainder is paid by residents within each of the 46 police areas under a system of local taxation called the "police precept" portion of property residence tax. SO by increasing the amounts, central government may also be pushing an increase in tax burden through the local authority system where this particular tax has been increasing steadily for a number of years.

And where else is the money coming from? With HM Customs using the new Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to secure GBP1 million a week, there is the potential for a serious contribution from the criminals themselves - if the government does the decent thing and hypothocates those recoveries back into law enforcement.