POLICE chiefs have vowed to tackle their recruitment crisis after Thames Valley police were described as the "anorexic blue line".

Martin Elliot, chairman of the Thames Valley Police Federation, which represents officers in the force, asked where all the uniformed officers had gone.

He told a recent meeting of the federation: "Rowan Atkinson stars in a programme called the Thin Blue Line but Thames Valley Police is the anorexic blue line."

He said that in a recent incident in Chiltern Vale there were just three officers on duty, one in Princes Risborough, one covering Wycombe to Amersham and a third to cover the Marlow to Wycombe area and they were all called to the same accident.

He added that he wondered who the 120,000 residents in the area were being policed by and said he believed this to be the "deceased blue line".

He said: "The time has come to stop chasing (police) indicators. Does the public really worry about that or want us to get to an incident as soon as possible."

Chief Constable Charles Pollard, said: "To identify problems is easy but finding solutions is rather more difficult."

He said they had suffered a recruitment crisis with an exodus of officers from the force but that things were getting better.

He said that they had already given officers recruited after 1994 a £2,000 boost in their wage packets to help attract new recruits and keep present officers.

They have had a nationwide recruitment drive, even targeting redundant steelworkers, but the chief constable said that he knew house prices were expensive in the area that was "bloody obvious".

Shadow home secretary Ann Widdecombe also called this week for more police in rural areas in the south of the county, agreeing that the thin blue line was getting thinner and thinner.

Speaking at a Conservative Party dinner on Monday, organised by South Bucks district councillor Chris Whitehouse, she said there were 2,500 fewer police officers in the country and 5,000 fewer special constables than at the time of the last election, yet the Home Secretary was letting criminals out of jail early.

"No wonder violent crime and fear of crime have risen," she said.

She wanted to see police back on the streets, rather than doing paperwork. South Bucks had been let down on law and order, she added.

"Rural areas must get their fair share of police resources and not always lose out to town and city centres," she added.