Terrorism and cuts put police under pressure

Britain's police service is under unsustainable pressure due to the resources required to fight terrorism, says one of the country's top officers.

Sara Thornton, head of the National Police Chiefs' Council, has warned that officer numbers are at 1985 levels, crime is up 10% on last year and police work has become "ever more complex".

These factors have resulted in pressure on the service that is "not sustainable", she said.

"Every time there's a terror attack, we mobilise specialist officers and staff to respond, but the majority of the officers and staff responding come from mainstream policing.

"This puts extra strain on an already-stretched service."

Police and MI5 are currently running 500 investigations involving 3,000 individuals, while another 20,000 former "subjects of interest" are kept under review.

Nineteen plots have been foiled since the middle of 2013, including six since the attack at Westminster in March.

Westminster was one of five terror attacks this year and after each one, hundreds of specialist counter-terrorism officers were tasked with the investigations.

Ms Thornton said: "In the response to the Manchester attack, three quarters of the resources deployed came from mainstream policing.

"This disrupts the daily work of policing on which the public rely, it creates a backlog of incidents in our control rooms and results in a slower response to the public."

A Home Office spokesman said the Government would do "what it takes to keep families, communities and our country safe".

He added: "That is why we are increasing funding for counter-terrorism by £3.4bn and the Home Secretary announced £24m in extra support for CT (counter-terrorism) policing in addition to the £707m already committed for this year.

"We have also protected overall police funding in real terms since 2015 and we are sensitive to the pressures on police forces across the country.

"We are engaging with them on the demands they are currently facing."

Ms Thornton's words come a week after the Parsons Green attack, which saw 30 people injured by an improvised explosive device left on a District Line Tube train.

Earlier this week, the top officer at Avon and Somerset Police admitted that crimes such as burglaries may no longer be treated as a priority because of increasing demands from mental health patients, missing people and the threat of online extremism.

Chief Constable Andy Marsh told Sky News that for crimes such as burglary and vehicle thefts, police would have to "take a lighter approach" due to cuts.

Earlier this year, Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley suggested that the importance of counter-terrorism would "inevitably push risk to other areas of policing".