TRAFFIC police are bearing the brunt of frontline police service cuts, threatening the safety of the road-going public, researchers have claimed.

New figures show the total number of bobbies in the West Midlands dropped by four per cent between 2008 and 2011.

But cuts to road policing were more than four times as savage – in the same period almost 17 per cent of traffic officers were lost.

Nationwide, traffic policing reduced 11.6 per cent from 2007 to 2011, while overall police numbers fell by less than two per cent.

Road safety charity Brake has now called on the Government to put a stop to the cuts amid fears drivers could take chances with boozing or talking on their phones if they thought there was less chance of getting caught.

And the mother of a Birmingham man killed in a road crash said investment was needed to “protect people”.