The public should not expect to see a police officer after crimes such as burglary, the head of the new National Police Chiefs’ Council has said.

Sara Thornton told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire budget cuts and the changing nature of criminality meant police in England and Wales had to prioritise.

She said it “could be” that if an iPad was stolen from a home an officer would not come round to investigate.

There had to be a “conversation with the public” over priorities, she added.

Ms Thornton has said that forces need radical reform if they are to survive budget cuts.

She said police budgets had been cut “significantly” – by 25% over four years – and they were expected to be cut further.

“Over 10 years we will have lost about 70,000 posts and I don’t think it’s possible to carry on doing what we’ve always done, as we will just fail the public but also cause unacceptable stress among our officers and staff,” she said.

Read more on BBC News.

Source: www.bbc.com

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