MORE than 750 new officers have been recruited by South Yorkshire Police over the past two years as part of the Government\u2019s uplift in recruits.<\/p>\n
South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent said it was good news but presented some \u201cwelcome challenges\u201d, including the logistics of training and tutoring them.<\/p>\n
Steve said: \u201cThere are challenges that we expected and the force expected \u2013 welcome challenges, if you like.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got the sheer logistics of having that amount of officers coming in and trying to find that many officers to tutor them. The officers are flooding out into the stations up and down the country now that they\u2019ve started to get a bit of experience. But it\u2019s a nice problem to have.\u201d<\/p>\n
He pointed out that the full benefit would be felt down the line, when the officers are fully operational and can take some of the pressure off overworked colleagues.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cI think the public needs to be informed of the fact that just because 750 cops have landed, it doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019ve got 750 pairs of boots on the ground. They\u2019re probably going to take anything from six months to two years to be fully operational and that\u2019s when we will really feel the benefit of those numbers being out there and shifts will have the pressure eased off them.<\/p>\n
\u201cOfficers then will drip into the CID departments and traffic departments and such. It\u2019s only repairing the damage that\u2019s been done over the past 10 years. That 750 uplift will only get us to just about where we were 10 years ago, probably not even that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we need to see past that is continued investment, and we need to see a slow, steady continuation of officers coming in so we can actually grow as a force.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur officers have been working at absolute full steam with pretty much the least resources in the country for so long now. It will be really welcome that maybe in a year to two years\u2019 time the landscape will be totally different in our force.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve added that even more recruits were needed to fill the gaps left by retiring officers. He said: \u201cWe need to grow and what I would like to see is us eventually growing beyond the 3,500 mark, which has always been the upper limit of South Yorkshire Police. If we can go past that, then we\u2019re in a totally different place. Things hopefully will be a lot better.\u201d<\/p>\n