Hidden data shows bobbies removed from beats tripled in past year

FEARS FOR NEIGHBOURHOOD POLICING WITH 'ABSTRACTIONS'

- By DYLAN HAYWARD

LEICESTERSHIRE Police pulled neighbourhood officers from their beats for 81,863 hours in just three months - the equivalent of removing 157 full-time bobbies from local communities the Mercury can reveal.

The figures had been redacted from public documents before being presented to the county's Police and Crime Panel, the body of councillors responsible for holding police to account on behalf of residents.

The hidden data showed the number of officers being pulled from their beats had more than tripled compared to the previous year.

Officers taken off neighbourhood duties known as abstractions are typically redeployed to cover emergencies, custody suites, court appearances, staff sickness and public order operations.

While abstractions are routine in policing, the scale of the surge has raised concerns about the sustainability of neighbourhood policing.

The baseline figures that would have revealed the true scale of the crisis were removed from a quarterly performance report presented on October 27.

Both the abstraction data and staff satisfaction were marked red for declining performance, but the comparisons showing how badly things had deteriorated were removed.