The new head of the Police Federation has warned that forces across the country are in crisis and the public are suffering as a result of falling headcounts and increasing crime.

John Apter said “policing in some places is broken” and the public would suffer as stretched resources forced police to abandon investigations into some crimes they previously would have dealt with.

Apter took over as national chairman of the Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, at the start of August, as rates of violent crime began to rise and forces employed the fewest police officers in more than two decades – 122,404 at the end of March, according to the latest figures.

“We can’t do everything; there are going to be situations where we simply can’t deliver the policing we want to deliver,” he said. “In those cases, we are failing the public, but that’s not the fault of police officers on the ground and, in some cases, it’s not the chief constable’s fault.

“You can only slice the financial cake so many ways and you have to prioritise … The public are already suffering and they are going to suffer more and more.”

Forces logged 5.5m crimes in the 12 months to March, a rise of 11% on the previous year and the highest tally for an equivalent period since 2005-06.

Apter told the Independent that the problems faced by police forces were a direct result of funding cuts. “I’m not saying that in the early days of austerity there were not efficiencies to be made, but what we are finding now is that we’ve been cut so much we start to become inefficient,” he said.

Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, said: “We cannot have security on the cheap, and these comments by the new head of the Police Federation confirm that Tory cuts are making our communities less safe. Over 21,000 police officers have been lost since 2010 and cuts on this scale are obviously going to have a huge impact on policing and public safety.

“The government must now listen to the Police Federation and forces across this country and give our police the resources they need to keep people safe. The next Labour government will restore 10,000 police officers to tackle rising crime.”

The Home Office said total investment in the police system would be increased by more than £460m in 2018-19, including funding for local policing through the council tax precept.

The home secretary, Sajid Javid, has pledged to provide forces with the “tools, the powers and the backup that you need to get the job done” and has committed to prioritising police funding in the spending review next year.

