Drop in police officers in South Yorkshire

The number of officers in South Yorkshire Police has dropped over the last year, new figures from the Home Office show.

The reduction in police officers across England and Wales to the lowest level since 1996 has led the Police Federation to warn that "policing in the UK is on the critical list".

In March, there were the equivalent of 2,459 full-time officers in South Yorkshire – a drop of 24 on March 2017.

Doncaster has one of the highest rates of burglary in England and Wales

The figures also show that less time was being spent on frontline policing – 2,135 officers were available for frontline duties in March this year, down 43 from 2017.

Ché Donald of the Police Federation of England and Wales said: "These new figures are proof, as if we even needed it, that policing in the UK is on the critical list.

"Thanks to government funding cuts, we now have the lowest number of police officers since 1996. The figures show we have lost more than 21,300 officers since 2010 – that’s a drop of 15% and the numbers keep going down every year."

The latest figures show an 11% rise in recorded crime across England and Wales, and a 19% increase in violent crimes.