THAMES Valley Police’s top officer said bobbies were too worried to use their common sense in policing in case they broke the rules.

Chief Constable Sara Thornton has called for an end to unnecessary bureaucracy and form -filling so officers can spend more time on the beat catching criminals.

She said they need a freer rein to make decisions without fear of criticism and space to use their discretion.

Reducing bureaucracy would be a good way of keeping officers on the street for longer, she said, in light of Government cutbacks which are likely to put pressure on front-line officer numbers across the country over the next few years.

She said: “Because we deal with a lot of high-risk situations, the response over the last 10 years has been to write more and more guidance for officers so there are more and more rules.

“The danger is officers spend a lot of their time following the rules rather than using their common sense.

“I don’t say this to criticise officers. It’s the system that we have created.”

She added: “We need to be realistic about what the police service can do in the light of reducing resources.

“We need to have less complex guidance and give officers the space to use their discretion.”

Officers were worried about complaints to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) and feared disciplinary action from the force, she said.

Last year alone, there were 52 sets of new guidance issued by the Government, the force and police watchdogs.

She added: “They have got so many rules they worry about complying with them all. It’s really difficult to keep up with.

“All of this takes time and takes officers off the street and the public want to see officers available and on the street.”

On Tuesday, police watchdog HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Sir Denis O’Connor, said only one in every 10 police officers was available to tackle crime at any one time, despite budget increases over the past four years.

Ms Thornton said: “I don’t think we (TVP) would be very much different.”

Speaking of the “unnecessary bureaucracy”, she added: “If you take the case file that’s required for the CPS for a straightforward case, it’s very, very complicated.

“It has got three times as many forms than there were when I was a constable.

“This is an area where we need to take a precautionary view on the paperwork.”

She added: “We are really trying to persuade the new Government we shouldn’t have to send so many statistics to the Home Office because it requires a huge amount of work. I’m not sure it’s worth it.”

Ms Thornton said officers could be trusted to use common sense effectively, despite criticism in the past over some of the decisions the police had taken.

In one incident in 2005, police tried and failed to take a student to court after calling a mounted policeman’s horse ‘gay’ after he failed to pay an £80 fine.

Ms Thornton said: “In hindsight there might have been a better way to deal with that.”

eallen@oxfordmail.co.uk