Chief Reporter

Reassurances that "frontline" police services in Devon and Cornwall will be protected despite swingeing budget cuts are "worthless", critics have claimed, because no such definition exists.

Home Secretary Teresa May, Policing Minister Nick Herbert and senior officers, locally and nationally, have repeatedly talked about the need to preserve "frontline" services while cuts of more than £2billion are made to police funding over the next four years.

But Freedom of Information Act requests by the Western Morning News have confirmed that neither the Home Office, or Devon and Cornwall Police, actually know what a "frontline" officer is. Neither said they had definitions for the role, although the Home Office said it was under "consideration".

In the circumstances, the Police Federation said pledges by politicians and senior officers to protect "frontline" officers were "worthless".

"How is the frontline policing going to be protected when they don't know where it is?" Sergeant Nigel Rabbitts, chairman of the federation in Devon and Cornwall said.

"They can't offer those reassurances. Our view is that every possible officer is frontline, irrespective of what they are doing, because they can all be redeployed."

Enforced budget savings of almost £50 million, over the next four years, will see Devon and Cornwall Police shed 700 police officers posts – from a high of 3,500 – mainly through the compulsory retirement of officers with 30 years' service.

Up to 500 police staff posts are also at risk. The force is restructuring to achieve the savings. Hundreds of officers will learn if they are to be moved from their current jobs and locations at the end of the month.

Assistant Chief Constable Paul Netherton admitted it was an issue that forces had "struggled" with because of the "subjective" nature of defining what the front line was. "If you stopped a member of the public in the street and asked them what a frontline officer was they would probably those that are visible and interacting with them," he said.

"But if you asked them about the officer who responds to 999 calls, the murder squad detective or the officer who investigates internet sex offenders then they would probably agree that was frontline as well."

He said the current restructuring of the force to meet the necessary savings was "focused on delivering quality of service" to the public.

The Home Office also admitted there was "no formally agreed definition of frontline" despite the term being "in relatively common use across the police service".

"Consideration is being given by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary in consultation with the police service to the establishment of a common definition," it said.