Cos in the long term it wont save money. At the moment the Police are responsible for the civilian staff they employ, if the member of staff is not up to the job then they can take that through their management system and get it dealt with. Having a third party dealing with staff means that you lose control of these personnel issues, you cant decide who to employ or enforce recruitment standards. Private companies are about maximising profits, and to do this they employ cheap staff and cut corners, I dont want a Police force like this thanks.
No long term sickness to pay for, no maternity leave, no pension, no holiday, no this, that and the other. No Unions to worry about when they want to cut staff numbers, then no redundancy pay. My personal thoughts aside, I can see how it can appeal to the Police Authority after the number crunchers have glammed it up a bit when they present their agenda.
As I said a lot of these roles are already done by civvies, either employed directly by Force/Constabulary or via external companies. Most Bobbies would rather have a police officer doing the back office roles, you can't beat experience in the job to offer the best support to serving officers, however, the public do not want it, the press do not want it, and senior management don't want it. That being said most Bobbies don't want to be back office anyway.
My main fear is not in the privitisation, its that the civvie staff will be made redundant and then offered their jobs back but with reduced salary, worse conditions, etc. Even before this cost-cutting scheme it is a rocky time for a lot of civvie staff.