HUNDREDS more police officers could be lost to plug a £27.6m funding gap in the region’s forces, the public was warned yesterday.

Labour leapt on an evaluation by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), which found most forces had yet to identify all the cuts they will make.

Potentially the worst-hit is North Yorkshire Police, which must save £28.4m by 2015, but has pinpointed savings worth only £15.3m – a "black hole" of £13.1m.

Durham (£5m) and Northumbria (£9.5m) also have big savings to find, according to the HMIC study – but Cleveland has already identified cuts worth £1.1m more than it will need.

The black hole comes on top of plans to cut nearly 1,200 officers in the region’s forces – in Cleveland (224), Durham (192), North Yorkshire (150) and Northumbria (627).

The redundancies among police community support officers and backroom staff will be even higher – in Cleveland (468), Durham (311), North Yorkshire (217) and Northumbria (1,119).

Yvette Cooper, Labour’s home affairs spokeswoman, said further staff cuts were inevitable, because forces spend 85 per cent of their budgets on personnel. Across England, the gap stood at £500m – a sum equivalent to 15,000 officers – although nearly half of those additional cuts would have to be made in London.

Ms Cooper said: “This proves the Home Secretary’s cuts are too far, too fast.

“We believe you can find efficiency savings, working with the police, over the course of a parliament. But you can’t just cut and run leaving communities to pay the price.

“When the police funding allocations are published this month, the Government need to change course urgently and stop undermining the fight against crime.”

The Northern Echo understands those allocations – confirmation of the sum each police force will receive for the financial year 2012-13 – are likely to be made on Thursday.

However, a rethink on the scale of the cuts to police – about 22 per cent in real terms, over four years – is highly unlikely, given the economic gloom.

The Home Office has said the savings can be achieved without cutting the frontline, by “prioritising the visibility and availability of policing”.

But fears have been raised that police officers are being pulled off the streets to cover for the sharp decline in the numbers of civilian staff.

A spokesman for North Yorkshire Police said on Tuesday: "North Yorkshire Police has already made the necessary savings and reorganisation to balance the budget for the current and next financial years, and plans are being advanced to break even for the remainder of the four-year Comprehensive Spending Review period.

"The 'black hole' . . . . has therefore already been significantly reduced by decisive action by the Chief Constable and his Strategic Leadership Team, while not compromising service and performance.

Meanwhile, the North Yorkshire force has announced it is in cost-cutting talks with neighbouring West Yorkshire about setting up a single squad of detectives to investigate murders and rapes.