MP Alan Campbell column: The still too-thin blue line

The government claimed to have met their 20000 more officers target, conveniently just days before important local elections.

But you don’t need to be an expert at maths to see the figures don’t add up.

There were just over 143,000 warranted officers in 2010, falling to under 122,000 by September 2017.

Even at the end of last year, there were fewer officers than in 2010. But now it seems the shortfall has been made up.

The suggestion is that retiring officers have been asked to hang on and failed candidates have been told to reapply.

Some forces still haven’t made it over the line, including at least four in the north. Our own, Northumbria, is one of them, despite our PPC having to raise the local precept to pay for our own recruits.

Beyond warranted officers, the number of PCSO’s has halved, as has the number of special constables and there are fewer police staff, leaving more officers to do backroom work.

Fewer officers after 13 years mean a record number of people saying they never see a police officer, arrests have halved, prosecutions have almost halved and the number of crimes solved has halved.

Instead of playing short-term games to meet self-imposed political targets. the Home Secretary should be resolutely focused on tackling crime and antisocial behaviour, which requires more not fewer frontline neighbourhood officers.