The biggest demonstration by police officers held in England and Wales on Thursday demanded the government halts its cuts and "privatisation" of the service.
More than 30,000 officers marched through the capital, said the Police Federation, in the only action they are legally entitled to take, in a show of defiance against budget cuts and proposed changes to the service.
The last time they carried out a similar demonstration, in 2008, they numbered around 20,000, and the federation said this time it was a display of the anger of rank and file officers faced with cuts to their pay, pensions and changes to their working conditions.
Some officers wore T-shirts demanding full industrial rights – the last time officers went on strike was in 1919 but the government banned them from taking such action again. In a symbolic nod to the 16,000 officers the federation say will be cut in the next two years, the same number of marchers wore black baseball caps as they walked from Millbank, past the Home Office to Parliament Square and on to Waterloo Place.
Carrying banners stating "Police for public not for profit", the marchers booed and slow-handclapped as they passed the Home Office. Others chanted "Theresa May, Theresa May, leave our pensions and our pay". All the officers had taken a day off work to join the protest.
Phil Abbiss, from the West Yorkshire federation, said the demonstration was the voice of officers protesting against the 20% cuts being imposed on the service by the home secretary. "It is simple, we cannot protect the public whilst sustaining losses in police numbers of this magnitude," he said. "The government's answer is to privatise us by stealth so the likes of G4S will be patrolling the streets, that is why we are all here today."
The protesters used Twitter to call in support and raise their concerns with the policing minister Nick Herbert. In response, Herbert wrote a letter which he posted on Thursday morning on the Home Office website, stating: "All organisations have to keep pace with the modern world. I know that the spending reductions which police forces are required to make are challenging, but they are necessary." He said the changes were not just about cuts – but about professionalisation, modern training, equipment and cutting bureaucracy.
But PC Shaun Robinson, 30, who took his wife and two young sons to the march, said: "What's being done is being called modernisation, but it's not modernisation. At times we barely operate with what staff we've got. We're told we've got record numbers of police, but that's record numbers with an ever-increasing population. It's just ludicrous."
Many marching said the employment protection they had as crown servants was being removed by the recommendations of Tom Winsor – who has carried out a review of police pay and conditions – which the government has accepted. As such they wanted full industrial rights in return for the loss of their job protection.
One detective constable from the Met police, who did not want to be named, said: "Our problem is we don't have a union, so this march is the strongest action we can take. I think there are a lot of us wanting full industrial rights, and the right to strike. If you take away our job security we should have the right to defend our jobs."
Police strength reached a record high of roughly 143,000 towards the end of the Labour government but the latest Home Office figures show numbers at their lowest for a decade at 136,000.
Under the Winsor recommendations the way officers are paid will change, allowances will be cut, the ban on compulsory redundancies will be lifted and there could be pay cuts for officers who fail the fitness test. Winsor has also proposed ending the right for officers to retire after 30 years and has called for entry at inspector level for potential high-flyers.
Paul McKeever, the chair of the Police Federation, told the marchers they were "the best police officers in the world and you deserve far better than the government are currently giving you".
The demonstation was met with sympathy by senior police figures. "There is no denying that officers from across the country have shown the strength of their feeling today about the future of the police service," said Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers. "Chief officers sympathise with the demands placed on the officers and staff in our charge. We recognise the financial uncertainty created by the current economic situation and changes to job security and pensions. We firmly believe that proposals for change have to be viewed for their cumulative impact and recognise the unique demands policing makes of police officers and staff."
A spokesman for David Cameron said: "The Government inherited a very tough fiscal challenge. We are having to make spending cuts across the board.
"We think the reductions in spending on the police are challenging but manageable and that the police will still have the resources that they need to do the important work that they do."
