Further “radical” changes will follow a sweeping shake-up of policing in Staffordshire, one of the county’s most senior officers said today.

Auditors KPMG are set to carry out a £295,000 review of Staffordshire Police’s intelligence, forensics and admin operations.

They have already completed a £480,000 study of frontline policies which has led to officers being instructed to consider “alternatives to arrest” such as solving neighbour disputes through talks and issuing instant fines.

It emerged this week a specialist police unit will be set up in the south of the county to gather evidence within minutes of an arrest.

Chiefs hope the creation of the new 18-strong squad will mean people suspected of serious crime will not be bailed simply because police have run out of time to quiz them.

Dep Ch Con Douglas Paxton, who revealed the plans to introduce the unit in January, said more changes were inevitable. Staffordshire Police needs to save £38million over the next four years.

Dep Ch Con Paxton said: “We have still got a long way to go when it comes to becoming as efficient an organisation as possible.”

He defended bringing in KPMG, adding police staff would carry out similar reviews in future.

“Could we do this using our own staff at the moment? Much more slowly and potentially not quite as well,” he said.

“But the plan is we will not need consultants at a time in the future for this type of review.”

Bosses believe the new investigations unit will have the resources to collect enough evidence to charge suspects.

Police cannot normally hold a suspect for more than 24 hours, but in serious cases it can be extended to 36 or 96 hours.

The new investigations unit for the south of the county is due to start work covering Essington, Great Wyrley, Cheslyn Hay, Cannock, Lichfield and Stafford from January 30. In the north of the county just 10 per cent of suspects are being released on bail since an investigations team with 21 officers was introduced at the end of September, down from 30 per cent.