That's a lot lot of cutting.

We're carrying a story today which is hardly breaking news - Leicestershire police are looking to slice £15 million of their spending.

They seem to have been cutting here and there for all the time I've been covering police matters.

Now it's official - they are to prepare for the anticipated public spending cuts by shaving £15 million of their budget in 2011/12.

I think it was two years ago they said they'd trimmed every last ounce of fat and they've been saying it at every opportunity ever since.

They've also been saying long and loud that they are not receiving the Government money they are entitled to. There have been many trips to the Home Office to plead their case.

In fact, they think they've lost £15 million over the past few years.

Well, now they've announced these cuts. It seems redundancies among the civvy staff are inevitable. Maybe as many as 150.

Police officers can't be made redundant, but you can run numbers down by operating a recruitment freeze, which they have been doing since November last year.

Officers have been saying for some time: "There's not enough of us."

Where is this leading us?

The crime figures look pretty good but things are obviously pretty bad when officers look around the room and think they need more bodies.

I spoke to a few civilian staff members about the cuts - which were announced yesterday - and they seemed pretty resigned to it and just hoped the redundancy notices don't come their way.

It's been a tough few years in the newspaper business these past few years so I know how that feels.

Easy interviews, tough interviews.

Today, I spoke to a mum who believes her son has been groomed and sexually abused.

As I've said before, there are easy interviews and there are tough interviews.

She described to me today the way a man systematically befriended her lad - offering him alcohol, drugs and the like - before sexually assaulting him.

The man she believes did this to her child is in court soon-ish.

We'll be there to see the outcome.

If he's convicted we'll ask the police for his mugshot and we'll do the works on him.

Today, I just wanted to meet her face to face so we could talk through how the court thing works when there will be newspaper interest in the outcome.

I said several times that victims are never identified, that we will want to print her words, not her name.

I'm not sure she knew this is how it works.

I'd assumed, with all the support for victims and their families nowadays, someone would be telling her this.

I just didn't think it would be me.

I write some words, people read them and a man in need gets help. Simple.

I'm made up. Writing for newspapers really is the business to be in.

It seems I've helped drum up support for the campaign to raise the rather daunting £100,000 city police officer David Robinson needs for cancer treatment.

David and his fiancee, Almina tell me that there's been a good response to the stories I've done so far. I'll keep writing them for as long as necessary.

The stories were also picked by the the local TV and radio people and their viewers and listeners have chipped in too apparently.

The picture above was taken for the Merc when David and Almina dropped in to meet Team Robinson, the police colleagues at Mansfield House station who are going all out to raise money.

Having said that, these two are clearly surrounded by loving family and friends who are doing more than their bit to let people know about this campaign.

To read David's story and to make a donation, go to:

www.davidleerobinson.co.uk

There's also a huge Facebook group.

This man was mugged for some tobacco and loose change.

Once again, criminals have shown how they can turn our stomachs when they put their minds to it.

This 67-year-old man was jumped when he let his dog out for a wander and a wee outside his home in Saffron Lane.

I've been up to his neighbourhood this morning and chatted to some of his neighbours, most of them in their 60s and 70s.

Understandably some of them said they were pretty scared but the overwhelming emotion was anger.

I don't know if my words amount to much on occasions like this, but I did point out that I've been covering the crime beat for some years now and I've only covered a handful of cases like this.

Probably three or four in eight years in fact.

The simple truth is that violence against the elderly is rare.

For whatever reason, robbery, assault etc are younger people's sports.

PS: Three people have been arrested in connection with this one. They've been released on bail while the investigation goes on.

These are the toughest stories to write. Really.

Dave Robinson is a young CSO in the city centre. He's 28-years-old, is engaged to be married and his girl is expecting their first child.

He also has a number of 'aggressive' tumours.

I've written a couple of stories about Dave's situation over the past month or so and been struck - not for the first time - by the way people in the police 'family' stick together.

It's also clear he is surrounded by a loving bunch of family and friends.

There's loads of fundraising going on right now because there is a treatment available in the US which could help him.

I also hear well-wishers' letters and cheques are arriving at Mansfield House police station in the city centre at a steady rate.

He's just so young.

Writing stories about seriously nasty crimes can be hard sometimes, but I get by.

I'd forgotten how tough it is writing about someone who is very poorly.

This picture above shows Dave meeting Leicester City manager Nigel Pearson the other week. The club were great hosts, particularly the man they call 'Birch'.

If you want to read more of Dave's story and to make a donation to the £100,000 appeal go to:

www.davidleerobinson.co.uk

There is also a huge group on Facebook. Visit that too.

Sorry I should have posted this information a few weeks back, but keeping this blog as up to date as it should be has been a bit of a struggle just recently.

Apologies, this is an elongated harumph.

I just wrote up a short witness appeal from a police press release - and then asked myself why I'd bothered.

Here's the release (from the force's website) in all its glory:

Police are appealing for witnesses after an elderly woman’s bag was stolen as she shopped for food.

The incident happened late last month on Friday January 22 at about 10.50am, while she was shopping at a supermarket in Humberstone Gate.

The 71-year-old victim believes that her bag was taken from her trolley as she was shopping in the bread aisle.

The bag is described as a brown reusable bag which contained a smaller bag and a black zip up leather handbag. Inside the handbag were keys, some cash, some bank cards and an umbrella.

PC Heather Brown, the officer, investigating the incident, is appealing for anyone with information about the theft, those responsible or the current whereabouts of the bag to contact her.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact PC 4598 Heather Brown on Leicester (0116) 222 2222, follow the instructions to leave a message for an officer and when prompted key in his identification number 4598. Alternatively, people can call Crimestoppers free* and anonymously on 0800 555 111.

* Some mobile phone providers may charge for this call

Two things struck me.

How about you?

Well, it happened a month ago and the supermarket isn't named.

Has the lady only just reported this to the police?

Possible and not uncommon.

My gripe here is the "supermarket in Humberstone Gate" bit.

Has the company concerned told the police not to name the store?

I think they probably have - even though we can all make a pretty good guess which shop we're talking about here.

This is happening a lot just lately and it's becoming a major harumph point for me.

Apart from the most serious cases, the police ask permission before naming businesses in witness appeals.

Victims - robbed shopkeepers, assaulted clubbers and the like - deserve anonymity and we give it to them routinely and willingly where the crime is so grave that their best interests are not served by being identified.

But big shops where thefts occur or bars where people get punched or glassed are in no conceivable way victims and, in my book, should be named.

The purpose of a witness appeal is to generate information for the police investigation.

On a good day the criminals get caught as a result of a good call to police.

As a reporter my heart sinks when I have to call up a big business.

They are self-serving sorts to say the least and, in most cases, run a mile when I ask for their help.

Do I have to mention Tesco again at this point?

Why can't the police toughen up and tell businesses "our priority is to find witnesses and criminals, not to worry about your reputation"?

UPDATE:
As I suspected, this Humberstone Gate supermarket appeal isn't going anywhere near the paper.

My name is Ciaran, I search the internet for people in uniforms.

I've added a few police blogs to the 'who I'm reading' list on this site.

I found them by running 'police blogs UK' through Google.

I've not had time to read them too closely, although I've scanned a couple of them quickly and they seemed pretty funny.

It's all very day to day observations in the style of David Copperfield - the original police blogger, now apparently living in Canada.

I didn't spot any references to my kind in the couple of articles I read in this handful of blogs.

I'd love to know what they and other police officers make of us reporters.

What are police officers thinking when I ring up asking (or on occasions, begging) for a story or a bit of guidance?

If any of you want to chip in with answers to that I'd love to hear.