'Bobbies on beat' may soon be history in Britain
London, Dec. 3 (ANI)
A number of police stations are set to close in the UK if there is more drastic government cuts, senior police chiefs have warned.
The police chiefs said that they are already 'stripped to the bone' and could be forced to choose between vital jobs the public rely on.
With the thin blue line at breaking point, more Treasury cuts would put forces in the firing line if they were unable to send out officers on patrols, express.co.uk reports.
The officers said that it will soon be impossible for them to deal with call-outs such as non-fatal road accidents and missing person reports.
It will also leave them too presence and respond to the thousands of complaints of anti-social behaviour, the report said.
The 43 police forces in England and Wales are already struggling to cope with a 20 percent budget cut, which will see 16,000 officers lost by 2014 to save 750 million pounds, the report added.
According to the report, nearly 7,000 frontline jobs have gone since 2010 with thousands more officers taken off the streets to deal with administration duties after the loss of many civilian staff.
"We have already been stripped to the bone, we cannot afford to lose any more officers,"
Paul McKeever, chairman of the Police Federation of England Wales, said.
"Our emphasis is on community policing but with so many frontline positions lost and with so many officers having to do admin duties, that is going to be impossible to do," he added.
"We hope the Coalition stops cutting back because lives are being put at risk," he said.
Latest figures show overall crime in England and Wales is down by six percent, and McKeever believes this is as a result of so many convictions after last summer's riots, the report added.