POLICE and Crime Commissioner Anthony Stansfeld and Chief Constable Sara Thornton find themselves in the middle of a controversy over the potential culling of hundreds of frontline officers.

The PCC is quoted in The Daily Telegraph saying 400 officers might be gone due to funding cuts.

He says he was misquoted and Ms Thornton says we are “not poised to lose” them, although her statement does not offer a copper-bottomed long-term guarantee.

The Chief Constable managed to protect the vast majority of the thin blue line from the last round of cuts.

If she can safeguard frontline officers then perhaps her next job should be a magician.