Government threat to Surrey Police

9.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 9th Apr 2009

Chief Constable Mark Rowley

Surrey Police have cut costs and red tape, to put more PCs back on the streets. However their government grant is less than half the national average, so despite cutting 144 administrative jobs, they needed to raise their share of council tax by 4.9%. The Labour government has threatened to "cap" them, which would entail the loss of another 80 staff, including front line PCs.