A POLICE chief who branded austerity cuts to frontline officers “too deep” has one of the best-staffed forces in the country, analysis by the Press Association has revealed.

Cleveland Police Chief Constable Mike Veale said on Friday that despite having “brilliant people doing a brilliant job” there were not enough officers to tackle crime because cuts were “too deep” and had gone on for too long.

But PA analysis found Cleveland is one of the best-staffed forces in the country, with one full-time officer for every 450 people in its 566,000 population.

Neighbouring forces Durham and North Yorkshire appeared to fare worse, with the equivalent of 552 and 607 people per officer respectively. Cleveland has the seventh-best ratio in the country of full-time officers to people.

But the force has still seen its budget cut by £25.5m and lost nearly 400 frontline officers since 2010.

While the force has a total of 1,257 full-time officers in March 2018, Home Office statistics show its number of frontline officers has fallen by nearly a third from 1,512 to 1,099 since 2010.

 

The City of London force, which polices the smallest population in England and Wales of about 7,650, topped the list with one officer for every 11 people.

Outside the City of London, the Met was the best-staffed force with one officer for every 290 of its 8.8m population.

Wiltshire Police, where Mr Veale previously served as chief constable before joining Cleveland in April, was at the bottom of the list with one officer to every 721 people. The analysis used Home Office data on full-time officers at every police force and compared it to Office for National Statistics population estimates from mid-2017.

Mr Veale said his force did not have enough staff and resources to protect communities and called on the Government to “give us the tools and we will do the job”.

Shadow policing minister Louise Haigh said that communities were being left unprotected because the Government has cut police forces for the last eight years in a row. She said: “With police numbers at record lows it’s little wonder that were seeing violent and sexual crimes soaring year on year whilst conviction rates plummet.”

A Home Office spokesman said decisions about how police deploy their resources, including the size of the workforce, were operational matters for their chief constables.

Giles York, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead on workforce, said a force’s effectiveness cannot be measured on officer numbers alone. He said that while police forces are providing good services, policing was “significantly overstretched”.