Tories are on the verge of breaking their election promise to recruit 20,000 new police officers by 2010 - amid warnings that a real-terms pay drop is putting off would-be coppers.
Latest Home Office figures reveal that a massive 3,427 officers still need to be recruited by the end of March in order to meet Boris Johnson's 2019 pledge.
It comes after years of Tory austerity which sent police numbers plummeting.
