'The West Midlands is safer than it was 10 years ago'

Chief Constable Sir Dave Thompson is standing down after six years at the helm of West Midlands Police

The West Midlands' most senior police officer says the region is a safer place to live than when he arrived over a decade ago.

Chief Constable Sir Dave Thompson, who is retiring next month, said a huge amount of work was being done to tackle violent crime.

He acknowledged the force was under "pressure" due to budget cuts.

"I think it's a safe place to live and work and I think its got safer," he told the BBC.

"We have got some serious crime issues that we see. We do have that in the force, no question and my successor's going to be busy with that.

"But actually those serious crimes affect a very small portion of the population as a whole."

The number of teenagers involved in knife crime in the West Midlands has more than doubled in the past five years.

However, Sir Dave said the number of crimes in which young people are stabbed had dropped this year.

"I'm really proud of what we've done in the West Midlands to create the violence reduction partnership, to create the interventions. It's not just the policing game, there is more to do than this," he said.

"But, like any of the big cities. It is the number one challenge and parents as we have said, can play a huge part in helping us with this."

"Pressure on policing"

In his final interview before stepping down, Sir Dave also spoke of the pressure austerity measures had placed on the West Midlands force.

"The scale of cuts in the West Midlands have really surpassed what we have seen elsewhere in the country and I've never felt less spare," he said.

"Sometimes those cracks have been seen in our ability to deal with all the things the public wants.

"There's no question there's a huge pressure on policing and, as other services may contract as we see potential restrictions in public spending, that would be my worry for the force going forward."

The outgoing chief said the "pinnacle" of his career was leading the policing of Birmingham's Commonwealth Games.

"It's the reason I stayed on longer than my initial term because I know from having other games in Manchester, how it can transform the city and region.

"And our job is to make sure it was safe and secure and it worked as a partner and it went incredibly well. And we all really enjoyed policing it."

Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: [e-mail]