A POLICE representative has called for a review into crime in West Yorkshire as new figures show the drastic drop in officers from 2010 to now.

West Yorkshire Police Federation reported that the region now has 55 more officers than it did this time last year.

And even though there's 5,168 officers in total, that is still 590 fewer than in 2010.

The Conservative government's decision to cut forces across the country has been widely criticised and blamed for rises in crime.

Even Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan police chief, has said there are "some links" between rising violent crime and the cuts.

And despite PM Boris Johnson's promise of a  £1.1bn boost, the benefits remain to be seen in this region.

Brian Booth, chairman of West Yorkshire Police Federation, feels the government doesn't have a "strategy" when it comes to policing our streets.

The chairman would like the government to get updates on the population figures for the area, funding, crime patterns and what their responsibility is for cases related to missing people and mental health.

Mr Booth told the Telegraph & Argus: "It's an absolute step in the right direction. But we are still massively behind where we were in 2009/2010.

"We're absolutely overwhelmed with work. This force is trying really hard to maintain frontline services. They've closed police stations, there's buildings being sold off. They really have nothing else to cut. 

"There's been a real lack of investment in police over 10 years so the effect is crimes change and we haven't had the money to do anything about it.

"We need significant investment in social areas of the world. Police officers are dealing with so much more mental health. Social services have had the cut, mental health services have had the cuts. We have far more people in crisis in our cities. There's no one there from the medical world to deal with it. We try to deal with it the best we can. That takes considerable time for our officers.

"We need a proper review in West Yorkshire.

"If you live in the leafy suburbs of the M25, they get investment into police but they get far more council tax. There's more affluent people there. In here, we have less people paying council tax. 

"One example of that is knife crime. We had a significant increase in murders up and down the country involving knives and with teenagers or organised crime. What the government do, they came to West Yorkshire and threw £2million at it. Once that £2million's spent, where's the sustainability?

"There's no strategy."

It all began in 2010 when Theresa May, then the home secretary, agreed to a Treasury demand to cut police budgets by 18 per cent.

And figures from the Home Office show just how many jobs were lost.

Between 2009 and 2016, the number of police officers in England and Wales fell from 144,353 to 122,859.

At the same time the number of specialist armed police officers has fallen from a peak of 6,796 in 2010 to 5,639 in 2016.

In early last year PM Boris Johnson promised a boost by creating roles for an extra 20,000 police officers by 2022.

He told crowds: "My job is to make your streets safer – and we are going to begin with another 20,000 police on the streets."