of services. The public can already see it is going on. We are already not pursuing crimes where we could find a suspect. We are doing things now that surprise me. We are struggling to deliver a service to the public. I think criminals are well aware now how stretched we are. These further cuts will leave us smaller than we have ever been. There is unquestionably more demand than there was in 1974.” In the 2021/22 financial year, West Midlands Police's budget was £655.6M, an increase from £619.7M in 2020/21. Structure and departments West Midlands Police covers an area of with 2.93million inhabitants, which includes the cities of Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton and also the Black Country. , the force has 6,846 police officers, 219 special constables, and 467 police community support officers (PCSO), 165 police support volunteers (PSV), and 3,704 staff. In 2019, 10.9% of officers were from a BAME background, compared with 8.5% in 2014. Local Policing Units The area covered by West Midlands Police is divided into ten Local Policing Units (LPUs). Each LPU is headed by a chief superintendent, responsible for the overall policing and management of the area, supported by a Local Command Team (LCT) composed of a varying number of superintendents and chief inspectors. Each LPU has a number of dedicated Neighbourhood Policing teams. These cover a specific area and are headed by a sergeant with support from a number of police officers, PCSOs and sometimes special constables. The force operates a number of police stations. Core policing teams West Midlands Police is structured in such a way that there are four key teams in each LPU who have the responsibility for dealing with everyday policing duties. The force's current structure was gradually introduced over the past two years with the Solihull and Birmingham South LPUs being the first area to see the change in June 2011, and the Walsall LPU being the last in January 2013. The structural change was introduced as part of the force's 'Continuous Improvement' programme with the ambition of working in a more cost effective and efficient manner and was overseen under the advice of accounting firm KPMG. Prior to Continuous Improvement, the force had operated with larger response and neighbourhood teams and smaller teams allocated to prisoner handling roles. Community action and priority teams were a new addition to the force's structure under Continuous Improvement. The core policing