More West Mercia Police officers after 'worrying rise' in homicides

More officers will be allocated to homicide investigations after a "worrying rise" in cases, a police and crime commissioner (PCC) says.

West Mercia PCC John Campion said there were 19 recorded in the area in 2020/21, a 58% increase, with a fifth "as a result of partner on partner".

He also said he would fund services working with the perpetrators of crimes such as domestic abuse.

His proposals included an additional 68 police officers for investigations.

The budget, which has now been passed, also allocated an extra £15.6m in 2022/23 compared to 2021/22.

Mr Campion said the money would go into delivering 125 additional officers overall, as well as "preventing crime".

The PCC said he was working with the force to understand reasons why people had come to lose their lives, and how further deaths could be prevented by targeting root causes such as mental health or domestic abuse.

Mr Campion said: "Unfortunately we have seen a worrying rise in the number of people needlessly losing their lives, which is devastating families."

Parent-on-child homicides accounted for 15% of the recorded total in 2020/21, he said.

He said communities would benefit from the 125 additional police officers, which would take the force to a total of more than 2,400.

Safer neighbourhood teams "will have more time to dedicate to the highly visible and accessible local community policing that is so important to people", the PCC said.

Additional resources were earmarked to reduce the environmental impact of policing, he added.

Budget plans were passed on Friday by West Mercia's Police and Crime Panel.

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