559 fewer officer roles in South Yorkshire Police

NEW figures show there are now 124,066 police officers in England/Wales – 2,752 fewer than the previous year.

In 2009 there were 144,353 police officers in England and Wales. That’s 20,287 fewer

In 2009, there were 3,053 police officers in South Yorkshire Police. There are now 2,494. That’s 559 fewer.

Neil Bowles, Chairman of South Yorkshire Police Federation, said it was no coincidence that crime was now going up.

He added: “Let’s be clear – police numbers do matter. Less officers means less chance of people getting caught; there is no deterrent.”

The police workforce statistics, published on 21 July, showed that 4,735 officers joined the 43 police forces in England and Wales in 2015/16, accounting for 3.8% of all officers.

This represented a fall from the previous two years.

The proportion of officers leaving the police, excluding transfers, in 2015/16 was 5.5%, higher than the previous year and continuing the upward trend seen since 2009/10.

5.9% of all officers were Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) as at 31 March 2016, a higher proportion than any of the previous ten years. 12.1% of joiners were BME, compared with 4.4% of leavers.

28.6% of all officers were female, again the highest proportion in the last ten years. 31.2% of joiners were female, while 22.8% of leavers were.