A hike in the police’s council tax precept will fund 25 additional officers across Luton, county crime commissioner Olly Martins has promised.
As part of current proposals a referendum will be held alongside the General Election in May, in which residents will be asked whether they agree with a 15.8%rise in the amount of money paid to Beds Police.
The hike would cost home-owners with Band D proper-ties an extra £24.81 on top of the £156.55 they already pay to the force’s coffers annually.
After initially pledging that the extra income would be used to fund a hundred ex-tra officers, Mr Martins has fine-tuned his plan ahead of a meeting with the police and crime panel tomorrow.
The refined proposal indicates that 25 officers will be placed across Luton, while 20 will be based in the Bedford borough and 30 in Central Bedfordshire.
The final 25 officers will be used to tackle ‘emerging issues’, like child sexual exploi-tation and cyber-crime.
> To have your say on the hike fill out the survey on Mr Martins’ website: www.bedfordshire.pcc.police.uk