Since becoming a policeman 30 years ago, the number of officers covering my beat has more than halved, while the area covered has expanded. I’m not scaremongering when I say the police service is in crisis.

I spent the last few years of my career as a Police Federation representative, before retiring 18 months ago. The federation has been raising concerns about the impact of cuts on policing for seven years and we’ve been repeatedly ignored by Theresa May. Nearly two years ago, Jeremy Corbyn also raised the national security risks involved in police cuts, all of which fell on deaf ears.

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“If you don’t like me, I don’t care”, was in essence May’s response to police criticism of her funding cuts. In the wake of the Manchester terrorist attack, the federation bravely spoke up about the security impact of losing more than 20,000 staff in the past seven years. A fortnight ago news broke that we are set to lose a further 4,000 officers.

This recklessness cannot be sustained. Cuts not only have consequences, they have potentially serious consequences. Why would anyone, let alone the government of the day, gamble with the safety of men, women and children of this country?

Years ago, as home secretary May forced the thin end of the wedge on us by cutting “back office staff” for “efficiency” – in short, getting rid of excellent civilian support staff that help us do our jobs. After that frontline numbers went down, demands increased and stress went up.

As police officers, we run toward danger while others run from it. It’s in the job description. The same is true of ambulance and fire crews, who I’ve watched get injured by aggressive patients and still rush to help, or have bricks lobbed at them as they put out fires. It hurts – but not as much as being abandoned by our own government. If serving officers had a penny for every made-up lecture on policing, crime, and defence from armchair experts, we might have the £40,000 a year that Amber Rudd appears to believe we do.

On Saturday, there was another terrorist attack. This time in London. My thoughts and prayers are, of course, with those murdered and injured in the recent attacks, and their loved ones.

The first responders to these tragedies deserve nothing but respect. How we respond requires more thought. In Manchester we had Operation Temperer, involving troops being deployed on home soil. It’s a sign of weakness, not strength, that Theresa May was reliant on a costly scheme that is only necessary because she has stripped policing to the bone.

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That’s why I’m suspicious of fine words on security. Those who shout loudest are often those with the least idea what they’re talking about, and the least regard for the real men and women who they like to be photographed with for press opportunities. Real people like Manchester Gorton’s Damian O’Reilly – Britain’s community policeman of the year in 2010, who was forced out of his dream role by the onslaught of cuts and changes under May. Real people like the officers on our patrols that I watched slowly leave and not be replaced.

We need more than a skeleton, struggling police service. Keeping Britain safe is about much more than arrest numbers. It’s having the local links, and hard-won public trust which helps us work with communities to spot problems like potential extremism or gang crime early on.

This is exactly what neighbourhood policing was designed to do before it was hampered by cuts.

It is being a helping hand to vulnerable people, and deterring potential offenders before the blunt instrument of our (overstretched) prison system has to be used. It’s listening and responding to what every community wants out of their police. A modern, effective service requires resources and care. Security policy requires more than tough talk backed up by no real action – which is what we see from the Conservatives.

Labour, at least, pledges action rather than talk – 10,000 new police officers, alongside new firefighters, prison officers and NHS staff on decent pay, and a commitment to maintain defence spending.

If we are to keep our streets safe and maintain the ability to intercept and respond to serious incidents, the service needs care and investment, not more cuts.