Britain is losing the war on knife crime because of a lack of police to carry out vital stop and searches, a top cop has warned.

Mike Barton, chief constable of Durham constabulary, admitted repeated budget cuts had seen his staff numbers slashed by almost a third.

And he claimed his officers were at risk of burn-out.

Speaking to the Sunday People, he said: “We need a hard crackdown. The police have to take the ground, the villain must be more fearful of getting caught. Stop and search is a powerful tool.

“Some are not carrying kitchen knives – they’re carrying zombie knives, Rambo knives, designed to inflict huge injury.

“But in some communities they feel stop and search is used disproportionately. So I’ve insisted that for every stop and search, my officers activate their body camera so officers are using them legally and fairly.

Police need to be better resourced to carry out more stop and searches, the officer says (
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“We’ve got far fewer cops. I used to have 1,650, now I’ve got 1,180. If you’ve got fewer cops – shock, horror – you get fewer searches.”

Chief Constable Barton said the failed war on drugs is also to blame and helping county lines criminals exploit kids by recruiting them as drug runners.

And our drug laws are creating a “latter-day Mafia”, he said, adding: “Prohibition in America didn’t work. No one seems to make the connection to the prohibition of Class A drugs here.

“In America, the prohibition of alcohol created the Mafia. They built Las Vegas on the back of their ill-gotten games.

“We have now got a latter-day Mafia in this country. County lines is a manifestation of the most dreadful controlling a commodity that young people are taking. They are handcuffed to this addiction.

Knife villains prey on vulnerability (
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Getty)

“The villains prey on that vulnerability – young girls are raped repeatedly, groomed and sexually abused, young men suffer physical violence and sometimes sexual violence.

Knife crime is an element of the situation on the streets we don’t totally control.”

He added: “We don’t have enough money and we don’t have enough police officers. We are seeing more and more burn-out with our cops.

“In 2010, I believed we needed a kick in the pants to become more efficient.

“But there comes a time, like now when crime is on the rise again, when we need boots on the ground.

“When it comes to knife crime and anti-social behaviour and people being scared of being caught by police, you actually need a police presence.

“We definitely need more resources to make sure it happens.”