Beds Police ‘literally ran out of officers’ during crime spree with 7 teens stabbed, 4 rapes and prison riot

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Bedfordshire Police ran out of police officers during one night last September as it tackled a crime spree including a prison riot, seven stabbings and four rapes.

MP Andrew Selous revealed the shock admission from the force’s chief constable Jon Boutcher yesterday in the House of Commons as MPs met to discuss the Home Secretary’s police funding plan.

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Mr Selous said: “The chief constable wrote to me to say on one Sunday, September 16 last year, the force literally ran out of officers.

“They had to deal with seven teenagers stabbed in Luton, four rapes, five prison officers being assaulted at Bedford prison, a fatality in a road incident, a 16-year-old being murdered in Bedford, and gunshot wounds coming into Luton and Dunstable Hospital.

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“That was a particularly demanding Sunday, but that level is not unusual as far as Bedfordshire is concerned.”

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MP’s voted in favour of the government’s funding plan, which will bring £8m extra into the coffers of Bedfordshire Police.

The £8m was made up of £1.3m in extra core grant, £1.1m in a contribution for pensions, with the Treasury having calculated that the PCC will be able to raise £5.6m from council tax, if raising the precept by the maximum allowed of £24 per year for a Band D home.

Beds Police and Crime Commissioner Kathryn Holloway also appeared before the Bedfordshire Police and Crime Panel yesterday to discuss the settlement for Bedfordshire.

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The PCC tweeted: “Bedfordshire’s Police and Crime Panel approved a £2 per month rise in the Police precept part of council tax & I’m using it to deliver 160 new PCs this financial year & more than first promised now we’ve finalised the budget - 120 not 100 the following year & 100-120 the next.

“3 of the Panel said no PCC could have done more to alert government to the @bedspolice case and all acknowledged that I left politics at the door of HQ the day I came into the role to put policing front and centre. As this role is usually a 359 degree kicking it’s a nice change!”