FORMER police chief constable Sara Thornton has warned officers may no longer respond to crimes including burglaries.

Ms Thornton, who officially stood down as head of Thames Valley Police in April, revealed cuts to policing budgets and changes in crimes seen across the country meant officers needed to focus on crimes which cause “risk and harm” to vulnerable people.

The head of the National Police Chiefs’ Council spoke to BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire about the possibility of certain crimes not being investigated in the future.

She said: "Crime is changing in this country. There are a lot fewer burglaries than there used to be, a lot less car crime, but the sorts of crimes that are on the increase - sexual offences, concerns about terrorism, cyber crime - that's where we really need to focus.

“We need to move from reacting to some of those traditional crimes to thinking about focusing on threat, harm and risk and really protecting the public.

"If we're really serious about putting a lot of effort and resource into protecting children, for example, that might mean if you've had a burglary, for example, and the burglar has fled, that we won't get there as quickly as we have got there in the past.

“Of course, we will still want to gather evidence, but we might do it in different ways."

Ms Thornton said it could mean officers will not come to a person’s home to investigate when an iPad is stolen and said there needs to be a “conversation with the public” about policing priorities.