INCREASING stress levels and dwindling police budgets are among the top concerns for the LPA commander for Reading.

Tackling drug supply and violent crime continue to be priorities for superintendent Stan Gilmour, although he admitted he would like to see more officers out on the streets.

Thames Valley Police budgets have been slashed by £99m in the last seven years, with more officers being assaulted in the line of duty.

Reading has seen a marginally nine per cent rise in recorded crime in the last nine months, while the town’s nighttime economy continues to be commended as a safe place to work.

Despite continued budget pressures, supt Gilmour was confident he and his team could deliver the service the town deserves.

He said: “We would like more money and we would like to be able to deliver more, but we are where we are.

“I would like to see the budget go up but I am very clear that the police will be what it will be. If there was anything that I could have it would be more cops.

“I am not nostalgic. I think we need to look to the future at where the threats and vulnerabilities are.”

Reading Chronicle:

More officers will receive Taser training under new measures, with a 50 per cent increase in the number of frontline staff set to use the device.

Three quarters of Thames Valley Police officers said they experienced increasing pressure since a new operating model was adopted in June 2017, with a lack of work-life balance among their concerns.

Supt Gilmour, speaking at the training headquarters in Sulhamstead, added: “Everyone in the country is feeling the pressure from a number of different areas.

“People do care a lot and they do worry when they leave work so it is my job to make sure when people leave they are unencumbered by their workload.

“In this job, there is stress, anxiety and PTSD. The world is becoming a more stressful place and the police are no exception to that.

“The general stress levels are increasing and the conversations that I follow would suggest there is work being done to address that.

“In Reading we have a very good welfare set up and we have a very good culture of looking after each other.”

A drug and alcohol strategy for 2018-2022 has been formed in partnership with Reading Borough Council.