Cambridgeshire chief constable Julie Spence hit back after a judge accused her officers of ‘indifference’ towards a teenager beaten up with a baseball bat.

She said no force in the world was so well resourced it could respond promptly to every 999 call. But Cambridgeshire was this week proudly boasting of the success of a blog, supposedly written by Lukas, one of its German shepherd puppies.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Policing isn’t about PR and fancy websites. It’s about keeping people safe and reassuring the public that crime is being dealt with firmly and strongly.’ Ms Spence’s comments followed the case of 18-year-old Sadegh Ghanbara, who was left with a broken nose and bruising after being assaulted by another teenager. The victim’s 999 call was downgraded by operators and officers arrived only after he was attacked and made a second call.

Judge Sean Enright said the police response ‘smacked of indifference’.

Ms Spence responded in a blog and podcast, saying: ‘In an ideal world, officers would have been sent to the scene after the first call. But we’re not in an ideal world.’

Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said: ‘We have to get more of our police out from behind their desks.’

metro.co.uk