County with no police to answer 999

A POLICE sergeant has revealed his force is so stretched there are times when there is not a single spare officer to answer 999 calls.

Sergeant Mark Cooper blamed budget cuts, claiming that police chiefs have taken staff off the beat in Cornwall in order to prioritise cases involving child exploitation and high-risk missing people.

Sergeant Cooper, who covers Falmouth and Helston, told a council meeting: ‘There have been incidents I am aware of where the box is empty and there’s no one available this side of Plymouth.

‘All these pressures that happen in the background do take us off the front line and take us off jobs in isolated places.’

Devon and Cornwall Police covers the largest area in England – 3,961 square miles – but in recent years staff numbers have plummeted, from 6,200 in 2010 to a projected 3,900 by 2020.

Over the past year, crime in Cornwall rose 10 per cent, with home burglaries up 11 per cent, shoplifting up 16 per cent and a 30 per cent rise in rapes.

Cornwall’s Chief Superintendent Jim Pearce said: ‘We acknowledge that at times we are stretched as a force, but we are confident that we use the resources available to protect the public.

‘We work hard to make sure that we have as many officers available as possible.’