Police spend half their time on the beat, says HMIC

POLICE officers now spend just half their working hours on the beat following Government cuts, HMIC has warned.

The watchdog said overstretched officers are no longer able to spend much time working in communities to prevent crime.

Instead they are busy staffing front counters, processing prisoners and guarding crime scenes, HMIC said.

More than 18,500 frontline officers have been axed since 2010, along with a similar number of back office police staff.

Many Bobbies now say they spend just 50% of their time out and about on the streets, HM Inspector of Constabulary Zoe Billingham revealed.

“For the rest of the time they are tucked away,” she said.

“Doing worthy stuff no doubt – but not visible, not doing their core role.”

Ms Billingham said Britain risks “sleepwalking” back to the days of 1980s-style policing, before Labour introduced thousands of neighbourhood cops to work with local communities.

And she said this could lead to rising crime and anti-social behaviour, and make it harder to spot potential terrorists.

She added: “Front-line neighbourhood police officers have told us repeatedly that they are being pulled from their vitally important preventative work in communities to fulfil other duties, like guarding crime scenes, spending time in stations investigating crimes or staffing police station front counters.

“Losing our eyes and ears in the community is only likely to hamper good performance in preventing crime.”

Policing minister Mike Penning said: “Police reform is working and crime has fallen by more than a quarter since 2010, according to the independent crime survey for England and Wales.”

He said the government had made policing “more professional, less bureaucratic for officers and more responsive to victims”.

“Last year we protected police budgets for the next four years, once local precept is taken into account,” he added.

“Chief constables and Police and Crime Commissioners have no excuse whatsoever not to deliver at least good quality policing in their areas.”