DESPITE the Government making a fanfare about hitting its recruitment target of 20,000 new officers, South Yorkshire Police still doesn\u2019t have as many officers as it had pre-2010, the Federation has said.<\/p>\n
South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent said: \u201cSouth Yorkshire Police are up to their numbers for now, which is obviously good news. But it is a bizarre thing for the Government to wave a flag about repairing the damage that they caused in the first place.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still not at the numbers we had pre-2010 in our force, and that doesn\u2019t cater for the growth that, as a force and organisation, we should have. The Government is almost like: \u2018job done\u2019. No, it\u2019s not, we need to grow our establishment even further to meet the demands that the public needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve added that the fast recruitment to reach Government targets had left forces with a very young-in-service workforce.<\/p>\n
He continued: \u201cWhile we welcome having boots on the ground, and once new officers settle in we\u2019ll have a really motivated, energetic workforce, there\u2019s a serious experience drain.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not disrespecting the enthusiasm of the officers, but we\u2019re losing a lot of our more experienced officers to retirement and for other reasons. We need to have a very steady growth in the organisation going forward, taking us over and above the numbers that we have now.\u201d<\/p>\n