Devon and Cornwall's police and crime commissioner is to spend twenty thousand pounds on finding ways to make savings in the local force.
It has to cut spending by an extra twelve million pounds by 2017 and the commissioner wants to keep police officer numbers above 3000.
The commissioner's office is joining forces with the government-owned Local Policing and Partnerships group to do this.
The Police federation of Devon and Cornwall, which represents rank and file officers, say they understand the need to look carefully at the savings, but that it's hard to understand the decision to spend more on bureaucracy.
They add that they would like to see the money spent on policing, particularly at a time when more officer posts are at risk.
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