A policeman's lot - Telegraph The latest figures for the number of police officers in England and Wales show a fall of 6,000 over the past year, as public spending cuts have bitten. None the less, the current complement of 136,000 officers across the 43 forces is only back to where it stood in 2002, so these are hardly uncharted waters. Those who suggest it is impossible to carry out proper front-line operations under such conditions are being unduly pessimistic. This is not to say that change has been easy. Tony Melville, Gloucestershire's police chief, said that he had already cut his budget by 25 per cent before a freeze in council tax forced him to find further savings. But as Nick Herbert, the police minister, observed in a speech yesterday, the overwhelming majority of chief constables have knuckled down to the task. Budget restraint has required them to look afresh at how they carry out their functions and to dispense with what is unnecessary - a task that the entire public sector needs to emulate. The last government thought that simply spending more money and employing more people made services better; but it merely made them inefficient. The constraints on spending mean that new ways of policing need to be explored, cutting substantially the back office staffing levels that have burgeoned in recent years and taking more local decisions, preferably free of Whitehall diktat and red tape. To that end, the election later this year of the new police and crime commissioners will be a critical moment in the history of modern policing. They will be seeking value for money while also trying to protect front-line services, because that is what local people want. These will be important and influential posts which deserve to attract candidates of the highest calibre.