Police warn funding cuts have stretched resources

LONDON – One of Britain’s most senior police officers has warned that funding cuts have stretched resources and would prompt “real challenges” should the country experience a repeat of the 2011 riots that rocked London.

In a blog for the National Police Chiefs’ Council, the chief constable of the West Midlands Police, Dave Thompson, urged the government on Friday to protect frontline policing

Thompson says the funding forces receive needs to be stabilized.

He says that last year the prison service snapped and that Britain “cannot afford this to happen to policing but the strain is showing from recent weeks and we’d have real challenges in dealing with something like the 2011 riots again.”

Britain has experienced four extremist attacks and a severe fire in recent months, straining police and emergency services.