In a move to save government money, some British officials want to put the power of the courts in the hands of the police.

British Home Secretary Theresa May,  says the plan could save the U.K. 2.5 million hours of bobby time, equating to huge savings of money for the government.  The way she wants to do that is to allow bobbies to skip the patrolling, detaining and arresting phase of police work, and allow the cops to simply charge the suspects, like a hybrid police/prosecutor.

It would apply to minor offenses, but the radical changes go beyond allowing police to act as street prosecutor.  Anybody wanting to file a complaint about the legal system would have to deal directly with a bobby.  The intent of forcing people to deal directly with police, with legal issues, is to reduce court costs for the government. May admits this would put a lot more power with the police, and is a definite move towards a police state: “We will take a different approach, we will trust the police.”

Officials with the British Shadow government  (yes, such a thing, aka Shadow Cabinet or Shadow Front Bench) say this will not only put a lot more power in police hands, but with a lot less police officers.  Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper (May’s counterpart) says that May plans to fire thousands of bobbies under the police/prosecutor plan.  The result of giving police the power to act as prosecutor, and then cutting police staff, will greatly increase the work load of the bobby.  Cooper says this will act as a double whamming for security; people will feel even more threatened by the power of police, and and the cops will be stretched thin.