Another cup of tea Sarge?
Only one in 40 officers free to answer calls | Uk News | News | Telegraph
Only one in 40 police officers on duty in some forces is available to respond to 999 calls, according to a study published yesterday.
The report, from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), found that only 2.5 per cent of uniformed officers in one area were allocated to "response duties". This meant that out of 800 officers at work only 20 were free for emergency response, which included patrolling alcohol-scarred towns and cities at night.
In another force, which was also unnamed, 50 officers were on duty but only three - six per cent - were allocated to "incident management".
The HMIC findings, in a report entitled Beyond the Call, will reignite the debate over bureaucracy and station-bound duties which keep the vast majority of the record 140,000 officers in England and Wales off the streets.
I'm sure this comes as no surprise to us readers of David Copperfield. No wonder we all stay locked up cowering in our own homes having surrendered the streets to the lowlife. As he reported last week:
Only one in 58 police officers is out on patrol at any given time, despite an increase in officer numbers, new Home Office figures show.
Just 2,400 out of a record 143,000 officers in England and Wales are out deterring criminals and reassuring the public - about four per town of 90,000 people - while more than twice as many are back at the police station doing paperwork.