Police on the frontline bear the brunt of cuts to their service and others | Letters

Your editorial is welcome even if your conclusions are a little confusing (Money is not the only answer but effective policing is at great risk, 26 June). Our force is medium-sized and covers a very diverse area ranging from deep inner city to very prosperous rural areas. Some things are constant – our population is continuing to increase heavily, there is a reduction of other services, more vulnerability, and the complexity of a digitally enabled world.

When we consult with the public they never, ever ask for less policing. But without more investment that is exactly what they are going to get.

Police officer numbers have reduced by 547 since 2009, a cut of 23%. We now have one officer per 599 residents. In 2006 it was one per 430 residents. The flat cash settlement and more top-slicing mean further reductions in funding in real terms.

Of course some efficiencies and savings were justified, but all reasonable people know that the cuts have gone too far. If this steady decline of resources continues then the time will come when the public will begin to lose their confidence in the police, which after all is the basis of British policing.
Willy Bach Police and crime commissioner, Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland
Simon Cole Chief constable, Leicestershire

• I do not believe police cuts can be considered in isolation from the cuts to other services. Your editorial correctly identifies increased strain on the police as a result of the terror threat and cybercrime, but we cannot ignore that the police act as the service of last resort – transporting patients to hospital when there are no available ambulances, caring for those in mental health crisis when there are no beds, and finding missing children often absconded from understaffed care homes. That cuts to all services are interrelated is something experienced every day by every frontline officer.
DCI Louise Fleckney
Broughton, Northamptonshire

• Your lead editorial on the police cuts makes much mention of various crimes, but completely omits anything to do with other police responsibilities, such as managing large crowds and keeping good order and traffic flowing, along with responding to road and other accidents, as the other emergency services do. The first duty of police officers is not to catch criminals, as many in the media seem to imagine, but to uphold the Queen’s peace. We cannot run our society without them and they require sufficient resources to meet all our expectations.
John Starbuck
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire

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