SURREY Police hit back this week 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 reveals numbers of neighbourhood officers across the country fell by a third, from 23,928 in March 2015 to 16,557 in March 2018.

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

The Times’ investigation also found, of the 1,994 officers employed by Surrey Police, just 114 are dedicated neighbourhood police officers.

A spokesman for the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey, 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 this 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 that the force will always benefit from extra officers, however with the resources at present, I am confident that Surrey Police as a whole are doing a fine job.”

Acording to The Times’ analysis, the number of police community support officers (PCSOs) has also fallen by 18 per cent nationally since March 2015 to just over 10,000, while officers assigned to back-office and administrative roles have multiplied by a quarter in three years, despite ministers’ pledges to protect “frontline” policing.

While figures from the official crime survey are flat, recorded violent crime in England and Wales has almost doubled, from 778,000 offences in 2015 to almost 1.4 million in the year to March 2018.

It comes after Surrey Police’s response to crime - and specifically its new ‘Policing in Your Neighbourhood’ model which allocated resources away from neighbourhood policing to focus on tackling complex offences like domestic abuse, child sexual exploitation and cybercrime in 2016 - came under renewed scrutiny in the wake of the devastating ram raid on Halifax bank in the centre of Farnham.

The Herald believes the West Street raid in the early hours of Friday, August 17, is at least the 35th such ATM theft in west Surrey and east Hampshire since February 2017, and the sixth in Surrey since the beginning of August alone - leading to criticism that Surrey has become a “rich picking ground” for criminals.

Responding last week, former Farnham councillor and Surrey PCC Mr Munro said the force is doing “everything they can” to catch those responsible, adding ATM theft “is a national issue”.

He continued: “Surrey’s new policing model has now had time to bed in, allowing officers and staff to balance demands from serious and complex crimes such as cybercrime, domestic abuse and child sexual exploitation with the need to retain the visible, local policing that I know is so valued by our communities.

“There are now more police officers in local teams than there were two years ago who are trained to deal with a wider range of policing problems but that balance is not always easy.”

Halifax’s historic Grade II-listed branch in West Street, Farnham remains closed having suffered substantial structural damage in the August 17 raid, and two student flats above the bank have been evacuated.