A SPECIALIST police search team which scoured the River Thames to find tragic teenager Kyrece Francis is among those facing the axe in new cost saving measures.

Anthony Stansfeld, Police and crime commissioner for Thames Valley Police, said the Specialist Search and Recovery Team, founded in 1956, will fold as the force tries to deliver £45m of savings in three years.

And 186 police officers will go between 2015 and 2016 in the continued shake-up, though the force insists this is through changes to training and modernisation and will not affect frontline services.

Adressing the cut in officer numbers, Chief Constable Sara Thornton said: "There is no doubt that the financial position of the force over the next three years remains challenging.

"However, we remain committed to identifying innovative ways to reduce costs without impacting on our front-line services.

"We recognise that this will become more difficult as we move forwards and having a robust medium term financial plan, which is flexible, is essential in our relentless drive to reduce the cost of policing whilst maintaining service and performance levels."

Police say they have delivered £24m of savings, but still need to squeeze a further £21m from the budget by 2017/18.

And the proposed changes were signed off by Mr Stansfeld last week.

The SSRT was deployed in July after frantic 999 calls when 13-year-old Great Marlow School pupil Kyrece got into difficulties in the river on the first day of the summer holidays.

It works over land and under water, and also searches and recovers items such as firearms, drugs, property and explosives, as well as missing persons.

The team is made up of eight officers - one sergeant and seven constables - plus one police staff dive technician and is involved in around 350 operations each year.

TVP says it will now call on other police teams or the military to help in a crisis, and officers have not ruled out using private companies for emergency tasks.

Mr Stansfeld said he regretted the move to axe the team.

Elsewhere, the reduction in officer numbers comes after changes to working practices meaning training has now been thrown out to the private sector.

And "modernisation" accounts for 53 positions which will go over the next two years.

The news comes after it was announced several police stations would close, including the downsize and sale of Marlow Police Station to developers.