Police in crisis

SIR – Sara Thornton, the head of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, has said that police on the beat may have to be replaced with “more targeted forms of police patrols” (report, July 21), yet she completely misses the cause of the current crisis in British policing.

Since Theresa May became Home Secretary, the number of warranted officers has decreased by more than 17,600. Over 20 per cent of crime goes unreported and last week the Office for National Statistics reported a 3 per cent overall increase in recorded crime.

There is, of course, more to police work than solving crime and, as a result of cuts elsewhere, the police have become the service of first and often only resort. There have been reductions in air support, dog sections, mounted branches and traffic police. Neighbourhood policing – which was beneficial to intelligence gathering, community engagement and crime prevention – has been destroyed.

Sara Thornton should be directly addressing these urgent issues with the Home Secretary rather than tinkering around the edges.

Clifford Baxter

Wareham, Dorset