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Labour's early release of prisoners will lead to cuts to neighbourhood policing and cost forces hundreds of millions, a top officer has warned.

Under the Government's new Sentencing Act, some 6,000 criminals are due to be freed under the early prison release scheme in a bid to combat jail overcrowding.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has paused the scheme's planned start date in September until he and Justice Secretary Alex Norris have completed an 'urgent review'.

It follows widespread outrage at PC Andrew Harper's killers potentially being freed from jail after serving just half of their custodial sentences.

Assistant Chief Constable Jason Devonport insisted that 'whatever the outcome' of the review 'policing will always be a phone call away, ready to protect the public and arrest criminals'.

But Mr Devonport, who is the National Police Chiefs' Council lead for criminal justice reform, also set out the stark choices facing colleagues from thousands of prisoners being released early.

In an article for The Telegraph, he said the 'uncomfortable reality' is that 'criminals will spend less time in prison and more time being managed in communities'.

'But out of prison cannot mean out of control, or out of justice,' he added.

Labour's early release of prisoners will lead to cuts to neighbourhood policing and cost forces hundreds of millions, a top officer has warned

Mr Devonport wrote: 'We have been working hard in recent months to prepare police forces for these changes to sentencing.

'We have seen increases in arrests for recall to prison and for breaches of bail conditions, as well as in the number of domestic abuse protection orders granted to keep victims of abuse safe.

'That work won't stop, but increasing pressure on other agencies to manage offenders in communities does not address reoffending, and it will come at the cost of other priorities.

'Every area of policing will be affected by these measures, from call handlers through to sex offender management teams.

'The collective cost of this for policing alone will run into the hundreds of millions of pounds.

'There is no flexibility in the way forces are financed to absorb that cost, and our workforce is not growing to meet that additional demand.

'It will mean police chiefs making difficult decisions to cut back on other priorities to keep the here and now afloat.'

He added: 'You could have someone that would be performing a really valuable function, dealing with neighbourhood policing or other antisocial behaviour.

'The Chief Constable might need to move them and say 'I'm sorry, you need to help manage these groups of offenders that are coming out of prison that are really risky'. Those are the difficult choices chief officers are having to make at the moment.

'They are having to re-evaluate their prioritisation on what is the problem facing us now and what problem faces us because of the Sentencing Act.'

It has been reported that rapists are likely to be exempted from the early release scheme following the PM's review, but those convicted of other serious offences, including manslaughter, will still qualify.

Senior Tory MP Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, accused Labour of 'failing to protect the public' and 'leaving victims and law-abiding people to live in fear'.

Zia Yusuf, Reform UK's home affairs spokesman, said: 'Labour is adding insult to injury for British people by cutting back on neighbourhood police to cope with the early release of dangerous criminals.'

A Government spokesperson said: 'We are building prison places at the fastest rate since the Victorian era, launching the biggest ever expansion of tagging to toughen community punishment, and have seen neighbourhood police numbers skyrocket by 22 per cent in a year.

'Alongside this we will deliver 13,000 additional neighbourhood policing personnel by the end of this Parliament.

'We are also freeing up forces through investment in technology, including a national facial recognition system for police, so they can spend more time on the frontline tackling crime.

'We have paused changes to prisoner release dates due to start in September to conduct an urgent review to make sure we get this policy right for victims without running out of prison spaces.'