Just a quarter of 999 calls to the police are related to real crimes

ONLY one in four urgent police callouts is crimerelated, a report reveals today.

Officers are taking the burden from other public services such as health workers because they are the first line of response, MPs revealed.

Instead of focusing on spiralling crimes such as violence and burglary, forces are tackling mental health incidents and minor car accidents. As a result, there are fewer officers for beat policing, MPs on the Commons public accounts committee said.

The report said: ‘The police’s main duties are to protect the public and prevent crime. Forces are dealing with more incidents which are not crimerelated with fewer frontline staff.’

It added that funding cuts mean officers were unable to catch as many criminals, it took longer to investigate offences and some forces could no longer afford neighbourhood policing. But former home secretary Amber Rudd hit back, saying the surge in violence on Britain’s streets was not caused by having fewer officers, but drugs.

Committee chairman Meg Hillier said: ‘The “thin blue line” is wearing thinner with potentially dire consequences for public safety.’

The assessment comes just a week after Sara Thornton, chairman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, called for officers to focus on solving burglaries rather than dealing with wolf whistling.

Her colleague, Chief Constable Dave Thompson, said: ‘Policing is at the tipping point.’

Police funding has fallen by 19 per cent in real terms since 2010 and officer numbers are down by more than 20,000. Arrests in England and Wales have halved in a decade, while recorded crime has risen in areas including homicide and knife offences.

John Apter, chairman of the Police Federation, said: ‘This report is the latest in a series of huge red flags for the Government. This is a national scandal.’