South Yorkshire Police is significantly down on officer numbers compared with 20 years ago, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said, leading to overwork and low morale.<\/p>\n
The force currently has under 3,100 police officers, but at its pre-2010 peak it had 3,400. \u201cWe dropped to an outrageous low of approximately 2,600 officers around 2015,\u201d said South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s gone up since then, but we are still nowhere near where we need to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve blamed the funding formula that means that more affluent counties in England receive more income from council tax, despite having less crime.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThere needs to be a significant improvement in the base figures of northern forces like our own who face budgetary restrictions; we need to be closer to 4,000 officers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are similar forces elsewhere in the country, such as Merseyside, who have similar populations, similar crime statistics, and they have nearly 4,000 officers. It’s not acceptable for the people of South Yorkshire, and it\u2019s not acceptable for the cops in our force who are having to do so much with so little.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve said the knock-on effect of having fewer officers is that officers are having to do much more, and that in turn leads to a cycle of low morale and poor job satisfaction.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cIt\u2019s a perfect storm. We have recruited as many officers as we can within our budget, but it\u2019s simply not enough.\u201d<\/p>\n