Cuts may hit 'Dixon of Dock Green policing'

Sir Norman Bettison said senior officers were striving to absorb

funding shortfalls without damaging front-line work.

But he admitted forces will have to prioritise essential work and that could mean some "nice to have" services face the axe.

Speaking before a meeting with Home Office officials, Sir Norman warned: "We will have to prioritise and some of that prioritisation might leave some of the 'nice to haves' as not being delivered any more."

Asked what might be cut, he added: "I am thinking of the level of cats stuck up trees or people who might need the help of police to get into vehicles or houses where they have locked themselves out.

"It sounds a bit Dixon of Dock Green but there is still an awful lot of what might be called public service that police do.

"What we have got to do is make a judgment not on the type of call but the vulnerability of the caller. Our stock and trade is risk and harm and striking the balance."

His comments come after the HM Inspectorate of Constabulary warned that only one-in-five forces nationally were prepared for the scale of savings needed.

Yorkshire's four forces are braced for cuts of up to 50m over the next three years.

Asked what changes the public will notice, Sir Norman said: "The hope, the challenge, is that they do not notice. The chances of being a victim of crime are at a level unprecedented in the last 20 years – an unprecedented low. Therefore what people see of their police service tends not to be a person that comes and takes a crime report.

"It is the uniformed presence or meeting a PCSO that is the visible and accessible familiar face of policing. The challenge is...delivering all the other stuff we do in a more cost effective and frankly cheaper way."