POLICE have drawn up a list of time targets for their officers to meet.

Those who dial 999 for a police officer in Oxford or other urban areas have been promised a face-to-face response within 15 minutes.

Anyone calling from a rural area will have to wait up to 20 minutes.

If the criminal is not on the scene, but police are still required, officers have promised to turn up within an hour.

The targets are set out in a 10-point Thames Valley Police ‘Policing Pledge’, which was last night criticised by the Police Federation for risking police and public safety.

The pledge has been operational since the New Year.

Force Deputy Chief Constable Francis Habgood said: “A member of the public has an expectation police will get there within a certain amount of time.

“This is a promise and a commitment from a public service that a member of the public can expect us to be there is a reasonable amount of time.

“If we don’t get there in that time, then they deserve some kind of explanation.”

Staffing levels are being examined to ensure targets can be reached.

Mr Habgood said: “There will always be occasions when res- ources we have are fully deployed on other issues and inevitably will not be able to get there in the time, but it is important the member of public is kept informed.”

The pledge also states police will spend at least 80 per cent of their time out of the office and on the county’s streets.

Andy Viney, secretary of Thames Valley Police Federation, said: “We want officers to arrive safely, not screaming around the county driving fast just to meet performance targets.

“We believe the public have the right to a good and prompt service, but putting a time to it only raises expectations which we can’t always meet.”

A teacher made to wait four days before police investigated a spate of vandalism fears the Policing Pledge cannot be achieved.

Natasha Waldman, 36, of Harcourt Road, Wantage, called police after her car was one of half a dozen sprayed with paint by youths in August last year.

It took 48 hours before a police community support officer arrived in the street and four days before a police officer knocked on her door.

She said: “In principle it is a fantastic idea, but in reality I cannot see it happening.

“I don’t mean to be pessimistic, but I do feel the resources are not there.

“It worries me that in the recession crime will go up and we don’t have enough officers here to deal with it.

“When you work hard for a living and people come and do this to your car, it is very upsetting if the police do not bother to come out.

“They don’t come to something like this unless there are witnesses.”

In January, Graham Hall, 69, waited six days for a police officer to investigate a break-in.

He walked to Thames Valley Police headquarters in Kidlington, near his home in Hazel Crescent, but was told by staff he could not report a crime there — and was asked if he was joining the HQ’s poker match.

He said: “Whether it is achievable or not is a matter of debate, but I’d prefer this to having to wait four or five days.

“My situation was not an emergency. I wasn’t upset, but I was seething with anger. I wouldn’t have minded if they rang me within 24 hours to say they were investigating the burglary then at least I could relax.”

In the past year, more than 320,000 emergency calls have been made to Thames Valley Police and one million to the non-emergency line.

There are about 900 police officers and 150 police community support officers in Oxfordshire.

Incidents where someone is injured — such as a car crash — a crime where the offenders are present, or where people are in danger will be answered within the 15- and 20-minute limits.

But crimes such as burglary or vandalism, where there may be forensic evidence but criminals are not at the scene, may take an hour.