Final chance to take our crime survey about policing in your area

We've launched our survey after the latest set of Home Office figures showed a huge rise in crime across the West Midlands, with recorded offences rising by 37 per cent in five years.

Overall crime has surged by 13 per cent in the year to March, with knife crime and other violent offences at the heart of the chaos.

The issue has been exacerbated by a range of problems facing police forces.

• The survey will close this Sunday at 4pm.

Take the survey here:

As we have reported, frontline officer numbers have fallen by 10 per cent over the last year for West Midlands Police, while Staffordshire Police has just 141 officers for every 100,000 people – the second-lowest rate of any police force in England and Wales.

Police funding has also dropped, with police and crime commissioners relying on increases to council tax precepts to bridge the gap left by reductions in Government grants.

Meanwhile other figures show that police charged a suspect in just one in every ten reported crimes last year, while of the 4.6 million known offences, investigators closed almost half without even identifying a possible culprit.

The revelation follows hard on the heels of WMP admitting that due to resources being stretched, many crimes were not getting past the first stage of investigation.

It all paints a deeply worrying picture of a Britain teetering on the brink of lawlessness, with our politicians and police forces struggling to address crime figures that get worse every time a new set is released.

We want to know your views

As part of its crime survey, the Express & Star wants to know your views on the state of law and order across the region.

With official figures showing that officer numbers are plummeting, we want to know how often you see police patrols in your area.

Some senior officials have suggested that beat bobbies don't help to solve crime in the modern age, but do you agree with them?

We also want to gauge how safe people feel in communities across the Black Country and Staffordshire.

For those who have fallen victim to a crime, we are asking whether you were happy with how the authorities dealt with the report.

And are you confident in the ability of the police to solve reported crimes?

We also want to know readers' feelings towards those in senior positions in relation to policy.

The position of Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) is set to be scrapped in 2020, with the role incorporated under the remit of the Mayor.

But have PCCs done a good job in terms of holding the forces they represent to account?

Theresa May's Conservative Government also comes under the microscope.

For generations the Tories have prided themselves in being tough on crime, but serious questions have been asked regarding such claims in recent years.

Do you have faith that the current Government can oversee a fall in crime?

We would also like to know your views on police station closures. In the West Midlands more than 50 have either gone, or are in line for closure over the next two years.

Mr Jamieson says many of the buildings are surplus to requirements and have been sold off to raise much needed funds.

Politicians from both sides of the political divide disagree, but what do you think?