The map of the number of police per 100,000 population as of March 2023
View attachment 6278837
It is recommended by many national and International bodies that you should never go below 200 police per 100,000 population.
The government and home office has always handwaved that and said "we're close enough" and "we're not too bad for disorder so we'll be fine".
Well the police being gutted in 2010 and never rebuilt doesn't look so good now does it?
For comparison (average for the nation per 100,000)
America - 372
France - 422
Germany - 349