The criminal justice system is in crisis, a senior police chief warned yesterday.

Thames Valley Police head Jason Hogg said PC Andrew Harper's family had been 're-traumatised' by having to fight his killers' release.

He welcomed the Prime Minister's announcement that his officer's killers, Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers, will remain behind bars after weeks of campaigning from PC Harper's family and colleagues to block their release.

The chief constable described changes to the prison early-release scheme to exclude anyone convicted of unlawful killing as part of PC Harper's enduring legacy. 

But he acknowledged that many other victims' families would be disappointed that the exemptions did not go further.

'I'm delighted and genuinely grateful for the intervention by the Government in looking at this again,' he told the Daily Mail.

Praising PC Harper's wife Lissie and mother Debbie Adlam for their campaign, he said: 'It's difficult to underestimate the impact the past four weeks have had on them as individuals and other members of Andrew's family.

'I've met some of the extended family who are clearly being re-traumatised by having to go through, simply having to fight for, in their words, justice being done. So I'm sure they'll be incredibly relieved and grateful, too.

'His legacy extends further now, because of what's happened, because Lissie and Andrew's mum have had the courage speaking out in such a dignified and powerful way.

'His legacy is now many, many hundreds of families of victims who've lost their lives, will now [see the culprit] stay in prison for longer. I'm quite proud that his legacy does live on, some good has been done in this situation.'

Mr Hogg, who is a former national police lead on prisons, added: 'I think some families will be relieved by the announcement but of course there will be others who will be disappointed... There will be people who are released early, who do continue to pose a risk to the public.

'We are in this situation still where the Sentencing Act is based on the person sentenced, not the risk they pose to the public.

'There will be people who are released from custody, for example people convicted of domestic abuse, who still may pose a risk to victims or the wider public.'

He warned that forces would have to shift resources from other policing priorities to deal with offenders released into the community. 

'I think we have a criminal justice system in crisis. That's the word I used with the Lord Chancellor when I met him earlier in the week. This is not going to be solved in a short space of time. This will take a number of years to work through.

'When – and it's not if because the reoffending rate in our country is about 30 per cent for released adults in the first year – some of those individuals released early breach their conditions, those individuals should be back in custody very quickly.'

Mr Hogg added: 'Already the whole Sentencing Act hasn't properly kicked in and I'm receiving reports that it's more difficult to remand people to custody.'

Yesterday Ms Adlam told BBC Breakfast that the past few weeks had been traumatic.

She added: 'It's a really mixed bag of emotions, though, because on the one hand we are glad, but we've been brought through the mill, and we are only back at where we were to start with.'