Police Federation: Government has ‘slighted’ police over their role in riots
Simon Reed , Police Federation vice chairman, accuses government of slighting the police force over their performance during the riots:
"To say it publicly is denigrating not just chief officers, it's denigrating the brave officers that were working those nights.
"They are basically saying they were not brave enough to do their jobs. So I know today that police officers up and down the country will be very slighted by what this government has now said.
"We need to have some very honest conversations with government about what we stop doing if we are to maintain frontline service delivery at current levels.
"It's the 20% cuts in the present spending period that will lead to less police officers, we should be very clear about that."