A Populus poll released today shows that a signifcant majority of people know nothing or very little about November's elections for new police commissioners across England and Wales. 57% of respondents said they did not know anything about the elections, while a further 24% said they "do not know much about them".

Officers and officials involved in the contracting of police services in the West Midlands and Surrey have been ordered to sign 'anti-corruption' agreements to prevent senior officers from retiring only to immediately return on lucrative private sector contracts.

Surrey Chief Constable Lynne Owens voiced her concern about the potential conflicts of interest, calling the situation "quite distasteful".

The Independent Police Complaints Commission is seeking new powers to make officers attend interviews if they witness a fatal shooting by colleagues. The move comes after the IPCC revealed it had not been unable to interview any of the 31 officers present at the shooting of Mark Duggan in Tottenham last August. The Home Office said it would not comment on the case whilst investigations were ongoing.

Police forces across the country are facing further cuts to manpower and services after a Whitehall spending watchdog today highlights a £500m shortfall in planned savings. Forces in England and Wales have been tasked with making an estimated £1.5bn of savings, but the report by the National Audit Office warns some forces may have to make deeper cuts to both frontline and office staff.

Proposed changes to policing in England and Wales will result in millions of pounds being spent on red tape rather than victims of crime, a charity has warned. Victim Support said that devolving budget control to the new police and crime commissioners would make it more costly for the police to commission support services, with administration costs increasing by 18%.

Ed Miliband has said government cuts are behind plans for a police force to use police community support officers on the beat rather than full-time police officers.

The Labour leader said he feared the effects of the plan put forward by South Yorkshire Police. He told reporters: “I really fear the consequences of this happening and I fear it happening in other parts of the country as we see the impact of David Cameron’s cuts to police numbers coming into effect.”

Mr Miliband’s criticism follows former Home Secretary David Blunkett, whose constituency is covered by South Yorkshire Police, describing the plans as “deeply regrettable”.

But the chief constable of the force played down the furore over the plans, saying it is a “storm in a tea cup”. David Crompton told the Today programme: "If it’s a roaring success I will be delighted but if we need to make some tweaks to this in order to bring it into line, well we’ll do that.”

But Home Affairs Select Committee chair Keith Vaz told the Today programme that the public would not be "fooled" by the similarity in appearance between police officers and PCSOs. He said: "The worrying part of this report is the belief that the public actually won't know, that they'll think a real police officer is arriving as opposed to a PCSO and I don't think the public will be fooled in that way."

Chairman of the South Yorkshire Police Federation Neil Bowles told Sky News the right resources should be deployed to the right places but PCSOs are not fully trained or fully accountable to the law as police constables are.

Scotland Yard showed "poor judgement" in recruiting former News of the World executive Neil Wallis as an advisor to the Metropolitan Police, a report has found.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission said "professional boundaries became blurred, imprudent decisions taken and poor judgement shown” by senior police personnel in the decision to recruit Mr Wallis, and then to offer a job within the service for Mr Wallis' daughter.

Deborah Glass, IPCC deputy chair, said: "In these investigations, at the heart of the issues affecting public confidence was the question of whether two separate arrangements – both involving a form of employment connected to Neil Wallis – were either corruptly entered into or otherwise breached MPS policies and procedures.

"In neither case did we find evidence of corruption, but in both cases we found that policies were breached, and in the case of the former Director of Public Affairs, Dick Fedorcio, that there was a case to answer in relation to misconduct."

The report recommended that the Met review its practices to ensure it cannot be accused of favouritism or interference.

Police have arrested two teenage boys as part of an investigation into allegations that Scotland Yard's anti-terror hotline was hacked. A 16-year-old and a 17-year-old have been arrested in the Midlands after a group known as Team Poison posted recordings which apparently show the hack taking place on YouTube.

The Metropolitan Police must ensure there is "zero tolerance" of racism in its ranks, Yvette Cooper has warned.

The Shadow Home Secretary said any allegations of racism against officers must be taken "extremely seriously" by the police, the CPS and the IPCC, after eight officers were suspended by the force.

"The MPS worked hard to change after the Macpherson inquiry, but the number of these claims now is a very serious concern," she said.

"The police must ensure there is zero tolerance of racism in their ranks, and must act fast to deal with any suggestion of racism that arises. It is vital for justice that everyone from every community can be confident in the impartiality of the police and their ability to enforce the law fairly."

Speaking to Sky News this afternoon the chair of the Home Affairs Committee, Keith Vaz, said allegations of racism against Metropolitan Police staff were "depressing" and "very, very worrying".

"What’s depressing is that this is 2012, a generation after the Stephen Lawrence case and it’s disappointing that we, frankly, have so many police officers in the Met who are under investigation," Mr Vaz said.

"I know it’s a small number if you look at the number in the Met, but actually if you look at the daily occurrence of these pieces of information, it’s very, very worrying indeed."

Yesterday, the force confirmed that an acting sergeant and two PCs based in Newham had been suspended over a claim of racist abuse after last year's London riots. The Independent Police Complaints Commission is investigating the claims.

It has now said a further seven complaints are being investigated, with five more officers having been suspended. The Met's Deputy Commissioner, Craig Mackey, said the Met "does not tolerate racism".

New figures released today under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that 120 officers at the Metropolitan police were found guilty of racist behaviour between 1999 and 2011.

A Channel 4 News investigation has revealed that, of these, 21 received some kind of sanction, six were forced to resign, and just one officer was dismissed.

The founder of the Black Police Association called for a "cultural change" in the police to root out racism.

Speaking to the Today programme, Leroy Logan said:

"I’m hoping that these revelations, what we’ve seen with the Stephen Lawrence murder suspects’ conviction, we start to see the need for bringing back race on the agenda.

"And in addition too, major quality issues, and to get that rigour and that grip, to get the performance indicators that hold people to account, because if it’s not measured, it’s not done."

Alf Hitchcock of the Association of Chief Police Officers defended the service's efforts in tackling racist behaviour, saying there had been "dramatic improvements".

"What we have made sure is that all forces have the right culture, a culture where people can challenge inappropriate behaviour and where people feel more comfortable," he said.

Ten cases of alleged racism in the Metropolitan Police have been handed over to the Independent Police Complaints Commission for investigation, the police force has revealed this afternoon.

Craig Mackey, a deputy commissioner of the Met who held a review into the incidents, also revealed five officers and staff had been suspended as part of the investigations.

Three of the ten cases had already been known to the media, which took place between January and March of this year, and follow Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe's vow to get to the bottom of "very damaging" footage of one officer apparently racially abusing a man and another allegedly assaulting a teenage boy last summer.

Mr Mackey emphasised today that there is “no room for racism” in the service, and revealed six of the cases involved other officers raising concerns about the conduct.

Keith Vaz, who chairs the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, said the allegations were "very disappointing" after the MacPherson review which followed the death of Stephen Lawrence.

The Labour MP told BBC News: “It is a surprise that this is still going on – I wouldn’t have thought that this was possible in 21st Century policing in London. And therefore what is important is, even though we have these ten cases, please let us get it all out into the open if there are any other cases."

Pensions will be worth just £2,400 a year by 2060 as Britain enters a "different world in pensions", Pensions Minister Steve Webb has warned. The Daily Mail reports that analysis by Mr Webb's department has found the average value of defined benefit pensions will peak at £7,100 per year.