A Labour government would protect neighbourhood policing by safeguarding over 10,000 police officers over the next three years, Ed Miliband has said.
The party has said it will fund the pledge through savings identified as part of its zero-based review of spending, which would include scrapping police and crime commissioners and abolishing police subsidy of gun licences.
The number of officers in England and Wales has fallen by over 16,000 since 2010, and the Labour leader warned that "because of the Conservatives’ decisions, neighbourhood policing – the foundation of good British policing – is at risk of disappearing, while increasing numbers of serious criminals are being let off the hook".
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But home secretary Theresa May insisted the proportion of officers on the front line had risen under the coalition, adding that "crime is down by more than a fifth under this government, and has never been lower".