More bobbies on the beat and police staff being recruited in Staffordshire

Staffordshire's top police chief says the force's finances are in a healthy place - and there's room to invest in more officers.

It's as a number of campaigners and charities call for more bobbies on the beat to tackle things like anti-social behaviour, shoplifting and knife crime.

"Recruiting more officers and staff is key and that is continuing at the minute. Back in 2007 when Staffordshire was probably the best force in the country, there were 2300 police officers, we dipped as low as 1560 but now we're back up to 2000 - so numbers of police officers and staff is important.

"We do have opportunities to invest, but whatever's coming over the hill I suspect will be painful for the public sector as a whole. So we have got to make sure we don't get involved in boom and bust improvements.

"I'm confident we can invest in a sensible and thought way, some of that will be officers and some of that will be more capable and modern capabilities."

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