Chief Constable Justine Curran has defended radical plans to save millions of pounds from the Humberside Police budget.
Ms Curran revealed a 32-page document last week, entitled The Future of Humberside Police, outlining her plans to save the force £31m by 2019.
The plans include: cutting 200 police officer roles and 500 staff jobs; low-level victims of crime having to book appointments with bobbies, and a change in on-duty shift patterns.
In her first interview since the detailed document was released, Ms Curran said: "I am committed, and my force is committed, to providing the best possible service to people across Humberside.
"After months and months of hard work putting this strategy together, listening to officers and residents, I am absolutely confident we have come to the right model.
"We are having to make huge cuts from our budget and the indication from Government is that this isn't going to change any time soon.
"So I had to make our work as efficient as possible.
"That does not mean to say it is worse because it won't be. It will be more modern, up to date, and we will still be out in the community doing our job."
The changes are set to begin in April, 2015.
From then, officers will, in theory, work shorter shifts, but will get fewer rest days.
Ms Curran says it means extra officers will be deployed at times of need and in areas of importance.
She said: "Overall, we will have 100 extra officers working over a 24-hour period.
"We will have more officers working at 7pm, when we are much busier than compared to, say, 7am.
"And these officers will be based in areas where there is higher demand.
"In hindsight, you think, could these decisions have been made earlier? The changes we have made really are common sense decisions."
Officers called out on jobs in the community will now be given the technology, including laptops, to deal with issues more rapidly.
Ms Curran said: "Officers often have to go out, spend time with people, then drive back before they even start the paperwork side of things.
"With the new technology given to officers, things can be dealt with there and then. It is going to save so much time."• Tomorrow's Mail will feature an in-depth interview with Justine Curran.
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