Video: Police Federation: cut backs will put public at risk There will also be 5,800 fewer frontline officers, but the proportion of officers on the frontline will increase to between 81 per cent and 95 per cent as the number of non-frontline officers is almost halved, with 7,600 going by 2015, the report said. Responding to publication today of the HMIC report "Policing in austerity: One year on," Paul McKeever, Chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: "It's a very serious report that the Government should take notice of. From the frontline, from the back office, we are losing numbers. The public will be put at greater risk. Chief Constable Steve Finnigan, from the Association of Chief Police Officers said that "police officers know we've got to make our own contribution to bringing down the public debt. We're only at the end of year one of the four year austerity programme, so I think it's too early to say yet what the impact of some of these cuts will be.