Police claim falling number of officers should be ‘wake-up call’
FIGURES showing police numbers have fallen to their lowest level in 30 years have been seized on by officers as a ‘wakeup call’ for the Government.
But while a Home Office report highlighted the decline, it admitted it was not based on ‘directly comparable’ statistics.
The latest figures showed there were 123,142 officers across all ranks in England and Wales at the end of March – a fall of 924, or 0.7 per cent, on the previous year.
It led to complaints from senior officers that their forces are stretched, even though police strength is still higher than when Tony Blair came to power in 1997.
In addition to regular police, there were 10,213 community support officers, meaning there were a total of 133,355 uniformed per- sonnel in the countries’ 43 forces. This is close to the 133,685 on the streets when PCSOs were introduced in 2003, and it is thought to be a higher number than were pounding the beat before then.
But the Home Office report insisted police strength was at its lowest level at the end of a financial year since like-for-like records began in 1996.
It said: ‘Records earlier than this are not directly comparable; however, they indicate this is the lowest number of officers since 1985.’
Steve White, chairman of the Police Federation, said: ‘What more of a wake-up call does the Government need?
‘Officer numbers are dropping consistently every year, yet our members are having to deal with not only more crimes, but the most unimaginable atrocities such as those in Westminster, Manchester and London Bridge. Particularly worrying is the drop in frontline and neighbourhood officers.’
Downing Street said the figures showed 7,500 officers joined the police last year – the highest number in eight years.
A spokesman added: ‘ Police forces have become more efficient in recent years and have proven that you can continue to provide an efficient service with a smaller and more agile workforce.’
Richard Garside, of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies think-tank, said: ‘After the unnecessarily high officer numbers in the decade leading up to the 2010 general election, we are seeing a return to a more historically normal level of policing.’