Police sergeant admits there have been times when Devon and Cornwall Police have been left with no officers available to respond to incidents
Sergeant Mark Cooper said his overstretched force was struggling to cope in the face of budget cuts
A police sergeant has admitted there have been times where an entire county has been left with no officers available to respond to incidents.
Sergeant Mark Cooper said his overstretched force was struggling to cope in the face of budget cuts with the loss of hundreds of frontline officers.
Devon and Cornwall Police cover the biggest geographical area in England.
But their workforce of officers and staff is being slashed from 6,200 people in 2010 to around 3,900 by 2019/2020.
And the worried copper, who covers Falmouth and Helston, said he knew of occasions when there had been no-one available to attend incidents anywhere in Cornwall.
He told a group of councillors: "I know full well, there have been incidents I am aware of where the box is empty and there's no one available this side of Plymouth (ie in Cornwall).
"Everyone knows that the police are stretched. We've got a reduction in numbers. It has reduced over a number of years.
"Unfortunately, I think the NHS and ourselves are all in the same situation."
Sgt Cooper made his comments at a meeting of the Helston and South Kerrier Community Network Panel during a debate about the lack of policing in isolated parts of Cornwall such as the Lizard.
He told the meeting: "We do try and get to the Lizard for regular patrols. The problem we've got is about prioritising.
"We have so many jobs for child exploitation or high risk missing people that we have to drop everything for.
"All these pressures that happen in the background do take us off the front line and take us off jobs in isolated places like the Lizard.
"It doesn't mean it's not a priority. It just means we have to look at all of our priorities."
Maxine Hardy, the Cornwall Council officer who helps arrange the quarterly network panel meeting, said they were fortunate to even have a police officer in attendance.
She said: "We fought so hard to get someone here. In the end, we had to go through the MP to get someone here once a quarter, to have someone face-to-face."
Devon and Cornwall Police have been asked for comment.
