Police cuts 'put public at greater risk of crime'

The public are likely to be at greater risk of becoming victims as falls in crime will be halted or reversed following a six per cent reduction in the national funding grant this year and a 20 per cent cut over the next four years, Civitas said.

A comparison of the number of police officers and the number of recorded offences per 100,000 people in European countries showed "a nation with fewer police is more likely to have a higher crime rate", it said.

But Policing Minister Nick Herbert has insisted there is not a "simple link" between police numbers and crime.

"What we should be concerned about is how officers are deployed, whether they are available and visible to the public, whether they are there on the streets when the public want them," he said last month.

"What matters is not the total size of the police workforce but the efficiency and effectiveness of deployment, how much bureaucracy is tying them up."

But the Civitas report, entitled 2011: the start of a great decade for criminals? said reducing police numbers "could lead to an increase in the crime rate".

It added that its predictions were consistent with other academic studies that found more police were "associated with lower crime rates".