Here is a remarkable story of waste of resources in a publicly run service:

Just one in ten police officers is free to tackle crime at any given time because the vast majority are either off work or tied up on other duties, a watchdog report has disclosed. In some parts of the country, as few as one in 16 officers is available to see the public or pick up the phone when a victim of crime calls.

The report, by Sir Denis O'Connor, the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, also found on any one day there are just 5,000 officers across the country ready to respond to emergency 999 calls, raising fresh concerns over the police’s ability to protect the public.

The picture emerged in a detailed study of the current state of policing and its ability to survive forthcoming cuts.

It found that the average beat bobby spends fewer than half the days of the year on duty and questioned management decisions after it emerged there are regularly more officers available for duty on a quiet Monday morning than the peak hours of a Friday night.

The full story was on the front page of the Telegraph.

Posted by James Bartholomew • Indexed in Waste in public services

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