Tory jobs drive fails to put bobbies on the beat
Half of forces have fewer officers than they did 13 years ago, survey finds
HALF of all police forces have fewer officers than they did when the Tories came to power in 2010 despite the party’s recruitment drive, analysis by The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.
Ministers have insisted it remains on track to achieve its target of hiring 20,000 officers by the end of this month. But even with the influx of new officers, 22 out of the 43 forces in England and Wales remain worse off.
According to the latest available Home Office data, there are 142,147 full-time equivalent police officers serving in the forces.
Even after the huge recruitment drive, that figure remains almost 1,600 fewer than in 2010 when the coalition government came to power and began a period of sustained cuts.
Over the past decade, falling police numbers were blamed for a rise in crime, and in 2019 the Tories under Boris Johnson made a manifesto pledge to recruit 20,000 new officers by March 2023.
The number of officers at seven forces, including West Midlands and Merseyside, has fallen by more than 10 per cent, while Cleveland has lost almost one in five of its warranted workforce.
Durham Constabulary, which is rated as the best performing force, has 222 fewer officers, while Hampshire is down more than 500. Greater Manchester has lost 612 officers, while Avon and Somerset, Lancashire, Staffordshire and Sussex are also among the forces with fewer officers than in 2010.
Analysis by The Telegraph is based on the most recent publicly available data and relates to a snapshot taken on Sept 30 last year.
While the overall figure is likely to have increased over the past six months, a number of forces, including the Met, have admitted they are finding it difficult to entice new officers. Sir Mark Rowley, the Met Commissioner, has conceded his force will miss its recruitment target by around 1,000.
Last year, the number of voluntary resignations increased from 2,100 to 3,600 with pay and morale plummeting to record lows according to surveys.
Official Home Office data also reveal that the current crop of officers are the least experienced since records began in 2007. More than 11 per cent of police are under the age of 25, which is up from just 3.5 per cent a decade ago.
Meanwhile, the number of police community support officers has halved from a peak of more than 17,000 in 2010 to fewer than 8,500 at the end of 2022.
Paul Fotheringham, president of the Police Superintendents’ Association, said: “We have serious concerns over the size and make up of our current and future workforce.”
A Home Office spokesman said it was on track to recruit 20,000 additional officers, adding: “We are working hard to support police forces during this unprecedented recruitment drive.”