POLICE consistently tell us they have made major strides in recent years in tackling the so-called ‘low level’ crime that can really have an impact on people.

Performance ratings have put the force as one of the best for handling reports of yobbish behaviour and vandalism.

But, while the inspectors may have been impressed, the public of Lancashire are a lot harder to please.

Many people would say their experience was they had to wait too long for a police response.

Victims of certain crimes often say investigating officers’ main thrust was providing a crime number for the insurance claim.

And that is why today’s news that the force will slash the number of incidents it immediately attends by 35,000 is extremely worrying.

Chief Constable Steve Finnigan says he believes that ‘undoubtedly we are deploying to too many jobs’.

One is left to wonder whether he would have reached this point of view had he not been forced to make £42million of cuts.

Mr Finnigan and the force now have a massive task to prove these words are not putting a positive spin on bad news or thousands of crime victims will be let down.