Officer numbers drop again as staff levels rise
Officer numbers have again fallen to the lowest level on record despite the first growth in the overall police workforce for eight years.
Officer strength for the year to March 31, 2018 fell by 738 in England and Wales, bringing levels down to just 122,404.
The 0.6 per cent decline means officer numbers are now 15 per cent below 2010 levels, and marks the lowest since records began in 1996.
The Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) said the year-on-year declines are beginning to look “like Groundhog Day” and warned that policing is on “the critical list”.
However, the overall police workforce rose 0.5 per cent to around 200,000 – the first annual increase since 2010.
The number of both black and minority ethnic (BME) and female officers have also risen to the highest levels on record.
Chief Constable Bill Skelly, national lead for statistics, said officers’ roles are “more challenging than ever as they seek to protect the most vulnerable in society and rising demand and more complex crime”.
He added: “We will work collaboratively with police and crime commissioners and the Home Office to look at our demand, capabilities and resources in the run up the next government spending review.”
The overall growth is largely due to a 2.9 per cent increase in police staff, as figures rose from 61,065 last year to 62,820.
The number of designated officers also rose three per cent to 4,380.
However, alongside falling officer numbers, police community support officer numbers dropped 0.7 per cent to 10,139 – and the number of special constables in post was slashed 13.4 per cent to 11,690.
The number of officers leaving the service rose to 8,574, or seven per cent of all those employed at the start of 2017/18.
This continues an upward trend over the last five years.
Seven per cent of officers were from BME backgrounds on March 31, the highest proportion since records began but half the average BME population of England and Wales.
Three in ten officers were female, again the highest level on record.
PFEW vice-chair Che Donald said: “We have a Government who recently launched their Serious Violence Strategy – yet failed to make one single mention of the falling numbers of officers, which they were rightly criticised for.
“You would think that every time we have the same conversations about rising crime, particularly violent crime, it would be a wake-up call for the Government. But instead it just feels like we are sleepwalking into a nightmare.”