STATISTICS showing that just one in three people regularly see a police officer on the street prove\u00a0that the Government’s policies for policing have failed, the Police Federation of England and Wales has said.<\/p>\n
Members of the public reported seeing fewer\u00a0bobbies\u00a0on the beat than five years ago, with one in five people fearing that they would become a victim of crime over the next year.<\/p>\n
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The Federation has described the figures, published by the Office for National Statistics at the end of March,\u00a0as a \u201csad indictment\u201d of the Coalition Government\u2019s policies\u00a0on policing, which have led to\u00a0officer numbers plummeting by 17,000 since 2010.<\/p>\n
The statistics prove that \u201ccuts have consequences\u201d, said the Federation.<\/p>\n
The ratings that local communities have given their police force has risen year on year, but the proportion of adults who reported seeing police officers or police community support officers (PCSOs) on foot patrol in their local area about once a week or more has dropped from 39%\u00a0in 2010\/11 to 32% in 2013\/14 \u2013 less than one in three.<\/p>\n
Steve White, Chairman of the Police Federation, said the survey \u201cunderlines the sad fact that, although the public highly values the work that police officers do to keep them safe, they are seeing fewer and fewer of them around on the street\u201d.<\/p>\n
The survey, entitled \u2018Crime Statistics, Focus on Public Perceptions of Crime and the Police, and the Personal Wellbeing of Victims\u2019, also found that 19% of adults thought it was very or fairly likely that they would become a victim of crime within the next 12 months.<\/p>\n
\u201cQuite clearly, cuts have consequences and the government cuts have severely damaged\u00a0the\u00a0service\u2019s ability to keep people safe and lock up criminals. With more cuts on the horizon, I dread to think what service we might be able to provide. Politicians of all parties should sit up and take note,\u201d said Mr White.<\/p>\n
He added that official figures showing that crime rates have fallen give \u201can entirely false picture\u201d as they do not capture the full range of criminality nor all of the duties that police officers carry out.<\/p>\n
Mr White listed counter-terrorism, looking for missing persons, preventing child sexual exploitation and monitoring sex offenders as just four examples of work that are not included in crime statistics but are of vital importance to the public.<\/p>\n