Police in the West Midlands are “very confident” the public will not lose out on front line services despite major cuts which are expected to hit the service, one of the region’s most senior officers said today.

And deputy chief constable Dave Thompson, who joined the force from Greater Manchester Police on Monday, said the public should play a bigger role in crime-prevention by volunteering to help police.

Residents should be encouraged to offer their time to organise local meetings, help with leaflet deliveries and even call back other members of the public with updates, said Mr Thompson.

He told the Express & Star: “Our challenge is to make sure we remain a service that people trust and can rely upon  we cannot possibly compromise that.

“We don’t want the quality and feel of front line local policing to alter. We don’t know yet what the size of the cuts will be and so when that’s clearer, we will have an open and honest conversation about where we can go forward.

“I think we’ve made huge strides in getting closer to the public and I think the only way we’re going to continue to bring down crime and make people safe is to keep that real, tight engagement at the front end. We’ve got to try to find ways of making savings in some of the back office or other areas.”

Mr Thompson, whose predecessor Phil Gormley became Norfolk’s chief constable earlier this year, admitted achieving this would be “challenging”, adding: “There’s an absolute commitment to making sure we improve.” He said the force would have to work closely with others to cut costs. “Already there’s a collaboration around air support (the sharing of helicopters between Midland forces) and organised crime,” he said.

“But that may also need to take place on some of the ways we run our back office businesses. In five years time I hope that we’d have policing very tightly linked into the public. I’d like to see the public play a really active part in policing, through Homewatch schemes and being activists, through volunteering with us.”

Mr Thompson said he wanted officers to spend most of their time out of stations and for residents to get more involved with the force. “We have a very good internet site that invites people to put forward ideas to neighbourhood teams,” he added.