Referrals to Cheshire Police into online child abuse soared from more than 180 in 2023 to nearly 800 last year.

Chief Constable Mark Roberts revealed the figures during a meeting of the police and crime panel called to discuss the controversial decision to axe 50 PCSO (police community support officer) posts across the county.

He said police staff, as well as warranted officers, were involved in digital investigations and gave this as one example of why he had taken the difficult decision to make up to 70 per cent of the 87 PCSOs redundant rather than other employees.

Chief Constable Roberts told Friday's meeting in Crewe: "The only way, unless we get an increased financial envelope, I can balance the budget is to make people redundant…

Chief Constable Mark Roberts. (Photo: Cheshire Police)

"And I have the difficult task of working out where can I take staff out of the organisation and give the best possible service to the public in Cheshire."

He said when he was appointed as chief constable in 2021 there was considerable concern about investigations into online child abuse and a year's backlog of examination of computers and phones.

"There were 120 online abuse of children investigations not being progressed because there weren't the staff to investigate the digital media aspects of that investigation," said the chief constable.

"As a consequence, we have made significant investments in that area, we no longer have a backlog in the investigation of digital media.

"That comes at the same time where referrals, frankly, have gone through the roof.

"We have gone from more than 180 referrals into online child abuse investigations to more than 700, approaching 800, so the volume of demand we've got has nearly quadrupled, and we have improved performance that we have no backlogs."

Chief Constable Roberts told the meeting: "I could reduce the staffing in the online investigation digital media.

"The impact of that is we have a backlog in computer investigations, and every investigation we do has a digital footprint."

The chief constable said another alternative to axing PCSO roles would be to reduce staff in the control room.

But he said in 2021, because there weren't enough staff, the performance was 'unacceptable'.

More staff had since been recruited and the time for answering a 101 call had reduced from 22 minutes in 2021 to between two to three minutes currently.

He added: "If we look at the 999 calls, which wasn't meeting targets, when I looked at the weekly chart this week, we're answering 999 calls within three seconds."

He added he could cut these staff as an alternative to making PCSOs redundant, but asked whether the public would accept an increase in waiting when dialling 999.

"If the performance of the call centre drops, people literally can die," said the chief constable.

Cheshire Police needs to save £13 million over the next four years.

The force says if PCSO roles are axed warranted officers would be redeployed into local policing teams.

But campaigners argue the importance of PCSOs to local communities cannot be understated, particularly when it comes to local knowledge and the trust built up over the years.

Police and crime commissioner Dan Price told Friday's meeting he has managed to save 10 PCSO roles – reducing the number which were to be axed from 60 to 50.

PCC Dan Price said he's managed to save 10 PCSO roles. (Photo: Office of PCC)

Mr Price is currently holding a public consultation on the police budget and said if residents agreed to pay an extra £2.14 a month on the precept [the police part of the council tax] on a band B, then all 87 PCSO roles could be saved.

The government would also have to agree to the budget flexibility regarding the precept.

The public consultation, which runs until January 23, can be found here https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/2026-27precept/