A TWENTY per cent fall in the number of officers at West Mercia Police over the past five years has been labelled “very concerning”.

The drop is significantly bigger than the national average reduction of 11 per cent and means 480 fewer police officers are fighting crime in West Mercia.

Currently West Mercia Police has 1,946 officers compared to 2,426 five years ago and there have been 658 police officer leavers over the past five years.

West Mercia Police Federation, the staff association for police officers in the region, has expressed its concerns over these statistics.

Dougie Gray, vice-chairman of the organisation, said: “The thin blue line is getting forever thinner and it is a very concerning trend.

“At some point if the numbers continue to fall we are going to reach breaking point and budgetary restraints are contributing to the problem.

“We are noticing there are fewer officers on duty, resources are being stretched more than before and officers’ work load is increasing. It is becoming more difficult to respond to calls as quickly as we have in the past.”

He added however that officers will continue striving to “get the job done” and are “still managing to protect the public and still providing a high quality service”.

West Mercia Police stated that a further 80 police officers will be recruited by the end of March while in the 2015 to 2016 year its target, in partnership with Warwickshire Police, is to recruit 265 police officers including transferees from other forces.

But Mr Gray claimed that figures for new recruits does not equate to more officers out fighting crime on the streets because of the numbers of staff leaving the organisation due to retirement, ill health or other reasons.