Local police forces are not equipped to fight crime, government sources have told Sky News, with thousands of officers pulled off the street into desk jobs in the past decade.
"Crimes on our streets are going unpunished" and are "plaguing communities", a senior source warned, as the government prepares to announce significant reforms to policing this month.
Home Office figures shared with Sky News show the number of trained uniformed police officers in back-office roles like HR and IT support has surged by 40% in the past six years to more than 12,600.
Meanwhile, the number of visible frontline officers has fallen to around 67,000, down from more than 70,000 a decade ago.
Government sources blamed "arbitrary" headcount targets, which they suggest incentivise hiring officers to desk jobs.
The Officer Maintenance Grant, introduced under Boris Johnson's government, is expected to be scrapped and replaced with protected funding for neighbourhood officers.
It comes as the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has called for a dramatic overhaul of the policing system as he said the current model is "out of date".
Speaking to Sky's Trevor Phillips, Sir Mark said he believed there should be a reduction in the 43 police forces across England and Wales as a shake-up of the system is "overdue".
Shoplifting top of public concern
Internal Home Office polling, shared with Sky News, found that shoplifting is the crime people worry about most, along with anti-social behaviour, including concerns about drugs and knife crime.
Shop theft has risen by 72% since 2010 and reached record levels in the year ending March 2025, with fewer than one in five incidents resulting in a charge.
A government source admitted many town centres feel "abandoned" as officers are "increasingly burdened by bureaucracy and stuck behind desks instead of out on the frontline".
They said "criminals feel they can cause havoc on our streets with impunity".
'A reactive service'
The government has pledged 13,000 more neighbourhood officers by the end of the parliament and has committed to a record £18.4bn police funding settlement announced last week.
Policing has become a "reactive service focused on crisis response, rather than fighting crime", a government source said.
(c) Sky News 2026: 'Crimes are going unpunished,' say government sources - with too many officers pulled off street
Greenland latest: Starmer was the gravest I've ever seen him as scale of NATO crisis becomes clear
What it's like to live next to a 25,000-tonne illegal waste dump - with rats everywhere
'Nowhere to hide' for water companies, vows government in industry shake up
Prince Harry: It's his biggest case against the press and the stakes are high for the duke and the publisher of the Daily Mail
How deadly train crash unfolded in Spain - and why it's been described as 'truly strange'
Gwyneth Paltrow, Cindy Crawford and Donatella Versace lead tributes to designer Valentino
Yorkshire Cold War nuclear bunker hangs on a cliff edge and is close to falling into the sea
Fighting erupts near prisons holding IS extremists in Syria a day after Kurdish-led SDF agreed ceasefire with Damascus
