Chief Reporter
Devon and Cornwall Police could enter into a private sponsorship deal under a plan being considered for all five forces in the South West.
Martyn Underhill, police and crime commissioner (PCC) for Dorset, said he had already held talks with a possible sponsor over an arrangement involving all the Westcountry PCCs in a bid to survive "austere times with a shrinking budget and workforce".
However, the idea was given short shrift by the Police Federation in Devon and Cornwall, with branch chairman Sergeant Nigel Rabbitts labelling it as "a dangerous path to go down".
"Why would any commercial enterprise want to sponsor the police?" Sgt Rabbitts said. "I would suggest only for the wrong reasons. I don't think sponsorship is possible if you want to retain a police service 'without fear or favour'."
Writing on his blog, Mr Underhill, a former detective chief inspector for Sussex Police, said he could see "huge potential benefit" from sponsorship.
He said he had met a possible sponsor at a crime reduction event last Friday and would be asking for the issue to be added to the agenda at the next regional PCCs and chief constables meeting.
He went on: "I can see huge potential benefit to forming appropriate sponsorship relationships with reputable organisations. They will give Dorset Police greater funding to maintain a high-quality service.
"They will also ensure that we have the funds to help us to combat crime and provide reassurance to communities."
But he added: "I need to be clear that we are looking for longer-term business support, rather than one-off sponsorships. This will help us to plan and sustain projects that might otherwise not have been possible due to the ongoing financial constraints.
"I also need to stress that neither myself as police and crime commissioner for Dorset, nor the force, will ever allow operational functions to become dependent on, or to be influenced by, sponsorship agreements."
The 43 police forces across England and Wales face funding cuts of up to 20% by 2015. In Devon and Cornwall Police's case that means making £50 million worth of cuts.
Under current guidelines sponsorship would be limited to 1% of Devon and Cornwall's total budget which stands at £288 million this year. Any sponsorship could, therefore, be worth £2.8 million.
Devon and Cornwall PCC Tony Hogg said: "Martyn Underhill's idea is an interesting one, and one that we will be discussing at the next regional PCC meeting at the end of this month.
"I am certainly not dismissing it, but an awful lot of work will need to be done to assess the full impact on the effectiveness, integrity and the independence of the police, and I know that Martyn appreciates that. However, in these tough economic times, I wouldn't be doing my duty for the people of Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly if I wasn't open minded enough to consider any ideas that might help to bring extra resources into the force.
"Sponsorship is not new to policing and would be subject to rigorous guidelines and safeguards. I will be interested to hear opinions from the local parties involved in this, and will assess a groundswell of views before I decide whether this is something I would like to see go forward."
Clive Chamberlain, chairman of Dorset Police Federation, said Mr Underhill "rightly recognises" the force as the lowest funded in the country and fully supported his efforts to lobby government for more funding.
He said: "The issue of sponsorship is not new to the police service and any such arrangements are subject to rigorous parameters.
"Sponsorship is subject to a 1% limit of the force's total annual income and does not make any of the statutory functions of the force dependent on this funding nor does it allow for any companies to interfere with the duties of the police."
