Except that's bollocks. His officers are just flat out on solvable cases at two in the morning when someone's making a racket, are they?

These geniuses forget that local knowledge is worth it's weight in gold. If the police don't show up short of a serious crime, soon they'll be nothing but a common enemy for idiots and people with a genuine grievance. Plus they'll have to cook the books even further...

This is the police pushing back against budget cuts and austerity and was bound to happen sooner or later.
You can't keep making efficiency savings indefinitely. Once everything has been pared back to the minimum and you still haven't met budget the only thing left is cutting staff and that will have a knock on effect on the level of service people expect. You may be able to get round that by delivering the service in a different way but if people expect boots on the ground and a rapid response to every little thing then they will be disappointed.

He's explicitly tied the reduction is service to the budget cuts being imposed by the government - this has to splash back on the government at some point.

Reminds me of the age old joke:

Caller : Somebody is breaking into my house.
999 : That isn't an emergency, we will send someone round in the morning.
Caller : Okay, I'll just grab my shotgun then.

2 minutes later, screeching tyres and several police cars turn up outside...

Cop : I thought you said you had a shotgun.
Caller : And I thought you couldn't get here before morning.

Hmm, due to the increasing number of refugees at the camp just outside the town, our police station is being rebuilt, made larger and we are getting more officers assigned to the area.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34166603

That's because quite often there's a middle man doing very nicely.