Cop forces at 37yr low

POLICE forces are having to tackle a surge in violence with the lowest number of officers on duty since the riot year of 1981.

There are just 110,000 officers dealing with the knife-crime epidemic plus warring drug gangs, cyber crime and terror threats.

More than 20,000 have vanished from the front line since 2010. The scale of the police crisis was revealed to MPs in a special House of Commons briefing paper.

It said: “Excluding absent staff, there were just 110,000 officers in England’s 39 forces, and when Wales is included, there are 117,456 at March 31, 2018. This is the lowest since 1981.” Cities including London, Liverpool and Manchester were hit by a wave of riots that year.

Durham Chief Constable Mike Barton said: “If we didn’t have PCSOs, people in some towns wouldn’t see anybody on foot.”

The Home Office said Home Secretary Sajid Javid “has been clear he’ll prioritise funding” and: “£1billion more public money is going into policing than three years ago.”