This is the inevitable result of a criminal (pun intended) lack of funding to the police service. What was it David Cameron said: "These budget cuts will NOT affect front line services"? No, of course they won't Dave. Because all those 'back-room' staff were never actually doing anything at all were they? Just sitting there, twiddling their thumbs. So we can make all those time-wasters redundant can't we?
What? They were actually doing something? Really? Oh. Well someone will have to take on their workload then. But who? Oh, I know - give to one of those lazy, under-worked PCs. They've got precious little else to do haven't they?
Etc.
The galling thing is that there seems to be a general public perception that police officers are lazy. This negative stereotyping is reinforced regularly by the press and gobbled up by a largely gullible public, most of whom would need professional counselling if they were to step into the shoes of the average response officer for a day. I know. I've done it and easy it ain’t.