Force numbers suffer after exodus of specials
WEST Midlands Police needs to recruit more special constables after hundreds resigned leaving the force with just a third of the volunteers it had in 2012.
New figures show that 78 officers left the Special Constabulary in 2016 and just two joined. As of last month the force had 199 specials compared to the 568 it had in 2012. In the same five-year period just 96 were recruited but 461 left.
Chief Constable David Thompson told the Strategic Police and Crime Board he hoped some of those candidates who fail in a recruitment push to employ 800 new police officers could be persuaded to volunteer as specials instead. He also hoped any future recruitment would see officers take up posts in specialist areas of the force.
Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson asked about the importance of specials at the meeting and said: “Warwickshire is about a seventh of our size, but it has 206 specials, which is 24 per cent of their workforce.
“Our numbers account for less than three per cent. It looks like more want to leave than join, because in 2016 we only recruited two when 78 left.”
Chief Constable Dave Thompson said: “Our specials numbers are quite low at the moment and we do need to increase numbers. Recruiting is not a no-cost option.
“It costs us money in training, uniform and expense.
“As we were going through austerity we did not recruit as many specials, but I would expect to see an upward trend this year. We are going through a large phase of recruiting, and there are a lot of people who have come forward who want to be police officers.
“If those people are unsuccessful, I hope we can encourage them into police staff roles, but I also want to use them as a recruiting ground for the Special Constabulary.
“In the past we thought the best place to deploy specials was in neighbourhood teams, but we are increasingly seeing the role of special constables in more specialist areas of policing.
“We have seen this in the Central Motorway Police Group (CMPG).
“They are able to develop a very high area of competence in a very narrow area of work.”