SURREY and Sussex Police hit back after being placed in the bottom 10 in England and Wales for the number of bobbies on the beat.

A Sunday Times analysis of Home Office statistics revealed numbers of neighbourhood officers across the country fell by a third, from 23,928 in March 2015, to 16,557 in March 2018.

Sussex was named as the force with the fewest bobbies on the beat per head of population, with just 8.3 neighbourhood officers out on patrol per 100,000 people.

Surrey came seventh in the bottom 10, with 9.6 bobbies on the beat per 100,000 people.

Rebutting the findings, a spokesman for Katy Bourne, Sussex’s Police Crime Commissioner (PCC), said the newspaper had not used the figures provided, stating the force has 227 police officers and 196 police community support officers in the neighbourhood policing team, which equates to 24.89 officers per 100,000.

The spokesman said: “The PCC has released £17million from reserves and raised the police element of council tax to provide the Chief Constable with extra funding. This investment means the force will be recruiting new officers and in four years’ time, there will be 200 more police officers than there are now.”

A spokesman for Surrey Police Crime Commissioner David Munro said: “Between the end of March 2015 to the end of March 2017, Surrey Police’s intake of officers increased by 6.1 per cent. In that time, the number of PCSOs stabilised, as well as the number of special constables.

“While the article only takes into account neighbourhood policing team officers, there were 850 police officers including the likes of road policing units out and about around the county, interacting with the community.

“There is no doubt the force will always benefit from extra officers, however with the resources at present, I am confident Surrey Police as a whole are doing a fine job.”