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Police are not pursuing crimes because of budget cuts - and criminals know it, a police chief has warned.

It comes as forces face the prospect of losing millions from their budgets, leaving them with officer numbers last seen in the 1970s.

West Midlands Police could lose as much as £20 million after being told by the Government to increase employee pension contributions.

Chief constable Dave Thompson said the money was the equivalent of 500 police officer jobs.

He told the Guardian : "There is no question there will be more obvious rationing 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."

(Image: Dale Martin)

Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott said Tory austerity is pushing forces “further into crisis.”

She said: “As violent crime rises, already overstretched officers are being asked to do even more with even less.

“The Tories insist they're protecting police budgets, but the truth is that their continued cuts are devastating our communities and leaving them at risk. You simply cannot keep people safe on the cheap.

“Labour’s commitment to policing and public safety is clear. We will recruit 10,000 more police officers to keep our communities safe.”

(Image: Empics Entertainment)

And in comments to the West Midlands Strategic Policing and Crime Board, Chief Constable Thompson said that he believed the Treasury was demanding extra payments into the pension scheme because it had got its sums wrong.

According to the Birmingham Mail , he said: "Our view quite simply is that the Treasury has worked this out wrong and our engagement nationally at the moment is to seek engagement with the treasury to understand what they are doing with police pension scheme.

"The silence has been deafening in the last two weeks and we are instigating more conversations with the treasury on this and we would like a response back on it."

Extra costs are being imposed on the police because the Government has changed the way it calculates how much public sector employers are expected to contribute to some pension schemes.

In the first year the extra cost to the West Midlands will be £8.6 million, and by the next financial year the extra annual cost to the police will be more than £20 million.

(Image: Birmingham Mail)

Mr Thompson told the Crime Board: "If that was equated to police officers it is a significant number I think we are approaching 500 officers clearly our intention would not be to try and do that."

Sara Thornton, chairman of the National Police Chiefs' Council, has said the changes mean police forces across England and Wales might need to find an extra £417m in total by 2020/21.

Tom Watson, Labour MP for West Bromwich East and Labour's Deputy Leader, said: "The thin blue line of policing is now stretched to the point of breaking.

"The words of the Chief Constable are damning and it is nothing short of scandalous that budget cuts are leading to open rationing of the police service in the West Midlands.

"It makes a mockery of Theresa May’s claim that austerity is over.

"These pension shortfalls will remove another 500 desperately-needed officers from streets across the Black Country at a time of spiralling violent crime. Residents will be very worried by this. I can’t blame them.

"It is now clear for all to see that the Tories cannot be trusted to keep the public safe. The party that once claimed to be the party of law and order is now the party of crime and disorder."

It comes as the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, prepares to present his Budget statement on October 29.

Mr Hammond has come under pressure to give police more funding after years of cuts. Home Secretary Sajid Javid, MP for Bromsgrove, and West Midlands Mayor Andy Street are both reported to have lobbied the Chancellor to look again at police budgets.

But, it's been reported that Mr Hammond is reluctant to make more money available.