Gangs are "wising up" and believe they can take on the police because of swingeing budget cuts, Surrey's deputy police and crime commissioner has said.

Jeffrey Harris, deputy to the outspoken Kevin Hurley, said in a blog post he believed the Government had failed to realise "police are almost at the point where they can't cope".

Mr Harris, a former Metropolitan Police chief superintendent, said the post, titled 'Another fine mess you got us into', was "directed at the Government and the Home Secretary in particular."

He wrote: "Is it me, or are anti-social groups beginning to wise up - which this Government consistently fails to do - to the fact that the 'thin blue line' is worth taking on and challenging, because they know police are almost at the point where they can't cope?

"The perfect storm is coming.

"People I speak to in many areas of the country are now feeling less safe, less secure, more vulnerable and abandoned.

"The signs are there if Government want to see them. But as I say often, there are none so blind as those who choose not to see."

Mr Hurley said earlier this year: "Cuts have consequences. People need to understand they are becoming increasingly more vulnerable."

Surrey Police's chief constable, Lynne Owens, told MPs at a select committee hearing yesterday that cuts mean not all reports of crime will attract a police response.

She said: "You can't make an organisation 40 per cent smaller and expect it to deliver exactly the same things as it did beforehand.

"Our officers, staff and volunteers are under more pressure than they've ever been before, the crime demands that we are facing have changed significantly and therefore we are going to have to start making risk, threat and harm analysis with what we respond to and what we don't."