One of Britain's top police officers has warned that the government's police reform programme, combined with spending cuts, risks compromising public safety.
Sir Hugh Orde, the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), warned that if the introduction of elected police commissioners, the creation of a national crime agency and other changes were mismanaged they risked undermining the historic British tradition of policing.
Orde told the Acpo summer conference meeting in Harrogate, North Yorkshire on Monday that the "service of last resort" faced a period of "changes to accountability, changes to central structures and changes to pay and conditions, which, if mismanaged, could threaten the impartial model of policing that has existed for 180 years and is revered around the world".
He said: "We understand the government's determination to deliver a substantial programme of reforms across the public sector, but we cannot afford to get policing wrong and, unless greater clarity emerges in the very near future, I fear we run the risk of compromising the safety of citizens for reasons of expediency."
He said the public sector was facing its most challenging times in living memory: "In short, we have a change programme that, at one end, will produce some of the most radical changes to police governance since 1829 and, at the other, will without question reduce police and staff numbers and pay.
Sir Hugh will open the meeting, which will also be addressed by Home Secretary Theresa May, by urging ministers to be clearer about their proposals.
He is set to say: "The service of last resort is going through a period of substantial change.
"Changes to accountability, changes to central structures and changes to pay and conditions, which if mismanaged could threaten the impartial model of policing that has existed for 180 years and is revered across the world.
"We understand the government's determination to deliver a substantial programme of reforms across the public sector, but we cannot afford to get policing wrong, and unless greater clarity emerges in the very near future I fear that we run the risk of compromising the safety of citizens for reasons of expediency."
The home secretary is expected to defend the government's cost-cutting proposals for the police service at the conference before taking a question and answer session.
The government is planning to cut its £11 billion funding for the police in England and Wales by 20 percent by 2014-15.
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