article_snippet: Cuts of 20 per cent to the police budget by the Conservatives will leave the public unprotected against crime and terror, a retiring senior officer has warned.
article_snippet: Sir Hugh Orde, the retiring president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, warns that cuts to the police budget of 20 per cent, proposed by the Tories, will leave the public unprotected against crime and terror .
article_snippet: Sir Hugh, who is due to stand down ahead of the creation of the National Police Chiefs' Council added that cuts to other public services had put an increased pressure on the police, with officers having to fill in for ambulance crews and  those let down by depleted mental health care.
article_snippet: Yvette Cooper MP, Labour's Shadow Home Secretary, said cuts would take spending back to 1930s levels and would sign the end of neighbourhood policing .
article_snippet: Labour has claimed another 30,000 police officers could be lost if the Conservatives are returned to power in May.
article_snippet: Almost 7,000 police community support officers could also be cut by 2020, Labour said,  after commissioning figures from the House of Commons Library based on trends during the current Parliament.
article_snippet: Yvette Cooper MP, Labour's Shadow Home Secretary, said:  'Conservative plans to cut spending back to 1930s levels would mean the end of neighbourhood policing. '
article_snippet: These figure show that under these extreme and risky Tory plans a further 30,000 police officers could be lost - the equivalent of almost the entire Metropolitan police force. '
article_snippet: This is on top of the 17,000 cut since 2010 and would mean police numbers falling by a third after ten years of the Tories.
article_snippet: Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe had lost about 15 per cent of almost the entire Metropolitan police force grant, £600 million, in 12 months.
article_snippet: almost the entire Metropolitan police force had managed to maintain police numbers by making savings in the back office - police numbers had lost 3,500 staff and buildings had been sold.
article_snippet: Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe feared that after this Government gets in, almost the entire Metropolitan police force will lose another 15 per cent, a total of a third, or £1.4 billion. '
highlights_snippet: Former Chief Constable said police are already burdened by wider cuts .