POLICE commissioner Anthony Stansfeld has blamed funding discrepancies between English forces after TVP’s investigations were said to require improvement.

A report on the effectiveness of Thames Valley Police, published yesterday, gave the force an overall rating of ‘good’ – but said the quality of its investigations had ‘deteriorated’.

Inspectors said the quality of investigations into less-serious crimes was inconsistent.

Responding the the report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, Mr Stansfeld said that if Thames Valley Police had the funding of other forces it would be able to hugely improve its deficiencies.

He said: “It is interesting to note that if TVP received the same funding per head of population as Durham Police Force, which is graded as ‘outstanding’, we could afford more than 1,000 extra police officers, and some of the deficiencies that I see could be improved on hugely”.

Mr Stansfeld was confident that action was being taken to help improve the lacking areas and was delighted with the positive aspects of the report.

He said: “I believe that officers do a very good job at keeping our communities safe and reducing crime.

“The report stated that the force were good at preventing crime, protecting vulnerable people and tackling serious and organised crime.

“I am pleased that it also recognises the work of the neighbourhood teams in responding to the needs of local communities and the collaborative work the force does with partner organisations in safeguarding vulnerable victims.”