Warning over the police service ‘haemorrhaging officers’

THE number of police officers in England and Wales continues to fall, latest Government figures have shown.

There are now 122,859 police officers now in England and Wales – 21,494 fewer officers than in 2009 and a 2,715 fall since last year.

In South Yorkshire there are now 2,460 police officers – that’s 77 fewer than this time last year. In 2009, there were 3,053 police officers in the region.

Figures published by the Home Office for September 2016 show there are now 60,815 police staff which is a decrease of 3.1% over the past year, 10,551 Police Community Support Officers, a decrease of 10.7% and 14,864 Special Constables, a decrease of 7.3%.

Steve White, Chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: “This is a wake-up call. The number of officers has been consistently dropping every year for the past seven years. Last year recorded the largest drop in three years. The thin blue line is getting even thinner and it’s wreaking havoc on our members.”

For the first time the report also included data on officer age profiles and showed an ageing workforce where 47% of officers were aged between 41 and 55 years old.

Mr White added: “A large proportion of these officers will be nearing retirement, leaving the service with more gaps to fill. Since 2007 the proportion of officers over 40 has increased from 39% to 48%. Over the same period the number of under 26s has halved from 8% to 4%.

“We value our older officers – they bring a wealth of experience and wisdom to the job but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that having an ageing workforce at times when violent crime is up by 24% including a 9% rise in knife crime and 7% rise in gun crime might just persuade more of these officers to consider leaving the service.

“We’ve continually pointed out that these conditions are exacting an enormous toll on the health and welfare of our officers. A police officer is assaulted every 22 minutes – that’s 64 a day. No wonder they are either leaving in droves or having to take sick and stress leave.

“The stakes have never been so high. At a time when we are having to deal with a heightened state of alert it is vital that we have a properly resourced police service, fit for duty, fit for purpose. What we need is action from the Government to address this, protect our police service and stop more officers from leaving.”