Neighbourhood police officers are becoming an "endangered species" because of swingeing government cuts, the Police Federation of England and Wales has warned.
A survey of the 43 police forces in England and Wales found that 77 per cent had either scrapped, reduced or merged neighbourhood teams over the last five years.
The police service has lost more than 16,600, or 12 per cent, of its officers since 2010 – effectively scrapping the equivalent of more than twice the number of officers in the whole of Wales. Police staff numbers have also dropped by 20 per cent as forces contend with Home Office cuts to their budgets.
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The Police Federation, which represents officers up to the rank of chief inspector, says the cuts are sounding the death knell for the traditional bobby on the beat.
Speaking to the Federation's annual conference in Bournemouth, chairman Steve White is expected to say that neighbourhood policing is "just one of the endangered species in the new streamlined barren policing landscape".
The results, he will warn, could be an increase in crime rates and a disconnect between officers and the communities they serve.
Nearly half the forces in the country have merged their neighbourhood policing teams with emergency response teams or other departments, reports PoliticsHome. Only two forces – Cheshire and City of London – said they had increased numbers of neighbourhood officers.
"Cuts really do have consequences and we see them every day. We are down to the bone and having to decide – neighbourhood policing or 999 calls?" White will say.
Policing minister Mike Penning said the deployment of neighbourhood police teams were an operational matter for forces, but insisted that the reduction in crime nationwide showed there was no "simple link between officer numbers and crime levels".
Home Secretary Theresa May is expected to give a keynote speech at the conference later today, her first since being reappointed in the post.
