Thursday, 9:30am - HARD-up Lincolnshire Police Authority is condsidering forking out up to £500,000 for an efficiency team to "re-prioritise resources".
Chief constable Richard Crompton will put the proposal before police authority members on Friday.
He wants to create a small team to examine the force's activities and steer resources to higher risk areas of policing, including child protection, i
nvestigating rape offences, minimising risks to the public from sex offenders, reducing serious domestic abuse and managing sex offenders in the community.
Chief constable Richard Crompton said: "Another priority is running our business sensibly and putting money aside so that we can take a fresh look at our operations in these and other areas.
"Putting more resources into the highest risk categories may create difficulties elsewhere in the force but we are prepared for that."
The proposal follows last month's government decision to cap the authority at 26 per cent.
The authority declared a 79 per cent increase on its share of the council tax in February, but local government John Healey designated it for capping in March.
The authority blamed a lack of government funding and claimed that without additional funding, several main police stations would close, police staff would be reduced by 364 by 2010, and police officers would be taken from operational duties to fill support roles.
When the capping was announced, the authority said it could cope with a stand-still budget but would struggle in future years.
The final decision on the introduction of an efficiency team is expected to be made at a Lincolnshire Police Authority meeting in September.
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