Police Numbers and Recruitment

Police Numbers and Recruitment

Police Numbers

Police numbers continued to rise steadily over the last decade. In 2000 the total police officer strength was just over 124,000. Between 2001 and 2002 officer numbers reached record levels with a 3.1 per cent increase - the largest increase for 26 years. The 140,000 mark was reached in 2004. There were slight decreases and fluctuations in 2006/7, before the numbers picked up again in the latter half of 2008 and by September 2009 there were reported to be 144,833 police officers - an increase of 1.5 per cent on the previous year. However, due to budget cuts imposed by the Coalition government to tackle the deficit, police numbers have seen a reduction in recent times.  There were 139,110 full-time equivalent (FTE) police officers in the 43 police forces of England and Wales as at 31 March 2011.

In addition the 43 police forces employ just under 16,000 police community support officers. Introduced in 2002 under the Police Reform Act, the number of PCSOs increased rapidly, from 6,214 in 2005 to a reported 16,814 by September 2009. March 2007 saw a 99 per cent increase on the previous year and a further 14.2 per cent rise in September 2007. This was said to reflect the commitment by forces to establish dedicated neighbourhood policing teams in each area by March 2008.The total number of PCSOs was 15,820 as at 31 March 2011, a decrease of 6.5 per cent on the previous year.

Police community support officers are paid officers, but they do not have the same powers as regular officers. Their role is to support the work of their local police force and "provide a visible and reassuring presence on the streets."

Special constables on the other hand are part-time volunteer (unpaid) officers who do have all the same powers as regular police officers. By September 2009, there were reported to be 14,516 specials employed in the 43 forces of England and Wales. There were 18,421 special constables as at 31 March 2011, 18.8 per cent more than the previous year.

Police Recruitment

Police officers are recruited from all sections of society, but applicants must be either a British citizen, a citizen of the EU or other states in the EEA, or a Commonwealth citizen or foreign national with indefinite leave to remain in the UK.

The minimum age for applicants is 18 and there is no upper age limit, although police constables and sergeants normally retire at 60. Also all new recruits, regardless of age, must undertake a two-year probationary period.
There are no minimum or maximum height requirements, but applicants must be both physically and mentally able to undertake police duties and although there are no formal educational requirements, written tests are set.

The starting salary for a police officer is around £20,000 per annum. Additional benefits include a pension plan, paid overtime, fully paid sick leave and a minimum of 23 days annual leave.

The same criteria apply to police community support officers, although there is no minimum age limit for applicants. The starting salary for a PCSO is around £16,000 per annum and benefits include paid overtime, fully paid sick leave and a minimum of 21 days annual leave.

Special constables also have to meet the same basic eligibility requirements as the regular police force. As they are volunteers they are not paid, but a uniform is provided and expenses reimbursed.

Ethnic minority recruitment.

In 1999 there was a drive to increase the number of police officers recruited from ethnic minorities. This followed the racist murder of a black London teenager, Stephen Lawrence, in April 1993 and a subsequent inquiry by Sir William Macpherson into his death. The Macpherson report published in February 1999 concluded that the police handling of the murder investigation had been marred by "institutional racism" and called, amongst other things, for targets to be set to increase the recruitment and retention of ethnic minority officers.

A decade later numbers had increased with minority ethnic officers accounting for around 4.4 per cent of the total police force. However, this was still far short of the 7 per cent target figure set by the Home Office to reflect the proportion of ethnic minorities in the population as a whole. In February 2009 it was decided to drop this "unrealistic" central target and replace it with individual targets for each police force to reflect the ethnic make-up of their local communities.

Controversies

Former prime minister, Gordon Brown, in a speech in March 2010, insisted that despite the recession and a commitment to halve the deficit by 2014, frontline policing would be protected. "Reducing fear of crime begins with - and is founded upon - a strong police presence on our streets...our commitment to protecting the record numbers of police officers and PCSOs is clear," Mr Brown stated.

However, many remained sceptical that police numbers could be maintained. Paul McKeever, chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, warned: "It is important chief officers and police authorities implement and utilise this investment wisely to ensure the public gets what it expects; more police officers on the streets...Our concern is that with 32 forces already reporting a recruitment freeze, combined with the natural loss of officers leaving and retiring, it seems more likely we will see a dip in officer numbers."

And the Home Affairs Committee suggested that whilst there was "a general commitment" to protect frontline services across the police force, there was also "a limit" to the extent to which this would be possible. "We see no reason to dispute the Association of Police Authorities' assertion that forces may be able to manage up to a 5% spending cut without affecting uniformed officer budgets, but would struggle to protect these budgets beyond this," the Committee stated.

The Coalition government elected in May 2010 inherited from the previous Labour administration a huge budget deficit, variously described as "a record peacetime deficit" and "the largest budget deficit of any economy in Europe with the single exception of Ireland." Consequently, the new Government immediately embarked on a deficit reduction plan which included cutting the budgets of all government departments.

The Home Office was no exception and central government police funding was set to reduce by 20% in real terms by 2014/15, leading to widespread concerns about the effect this would have on officer numbers and frontline policing. But the Government argued the savings could be made by "driving out wasteful spending, reducing back office costs and cutting out time wasting bureaucracy", which they claimed would make policing "more effective".

In May 2011, Home Secretary Theresa May outlined a number of measures which the Government believed would save an estimated 2.5 million police hours a year – the equivalent of more than 1200 police officer posts. The measures included restructuring the police performance development review process (PDR), adopting a "more sophisticated approach" to risk management  and a simplified crime recording process. Ms May described the reforms as "a watershed moment in policing, showing that we really mean business in busting bureaucracy and allowing police to police and not fill in forms."

In July 2011, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) published a report entitled 'Adapting to Austerity' which assessed the preparedness of the police force and authority for the 2011/12 to 2014/15 CSR period. The report estimated that from March 2010-March 2015 the police workforce in England and Wales would reduce by 16,200 police officers, 1800 PCSOs and 16,100 police staff – a total of 34,100.

HMIC predicted that maintaining the planned level of protection to frontline/operational numbers of the workforce over the whole CSR period would be "very challenging" – especially within the first two CSR years (2011/12 and 2012/13) as two-thirds of central Government funding cuts would fall within that period.

The predicted loss of more than 34,000 jobs provoked an outcry. Unite union's national officer, Peter Allenson, said: "It's blindingly obvious that you cannot lose this number of jobs and maintain crime reduction levels……… In reality, even more police will be lost than this report suggests as many will be doing the work of police staff which is crucial to protecting the public."

The Police Superintendents Association of England and Wales was equally concerned. PSAEW vice president, Chief Superintendent Irene Curtis, said: "Whilst it is anticipated that many of these posts will not be from roles that HMIC has determined to be frontline, it is impossible to reduce the workforce to this extent without impacting on service delivery."

According to CS Curtis, there have already been"significant reductions" in superintending ranks – the senior operational ranks in policing. "In some forces…. it is becoming virtually impossible for our members to provide adequate operational cover without breaking the law in terms of Working Time Regulations," she said. "Spans of command are ever increasing. With this comes both greater operational risk and personal risk to individuals."

But despite the concerns, CS Curtis remained optimistic. "The public should be reassured that policing is not in crisis," she said. "In four years time we will still have a skilled, committed, loyal and flexible workforce with in excess of 127,000 police officers providing an effective policing service across England and Wales, ably supported by more than 15,000 PCSOs and 67,000 police staff."
 

Statistics

Statistics on police strength for the 43 police forces of England and Wales and for the British Transport Police for the financial year ending 31 March 2011.

There were 139,110 full-time equivalent (FTE) police officers in the 43 police forces of England and Wales as at 31 March 2011. This is a decrease of 3.2 per cent or 4,625 officers compared to a year earlier, and follows a decrease of 35 officers in the twelve months prior to that.

Police officer strength, including officers from the British Transport Police and those seconded to Central Services (such as the National Policing Improvement Agency or Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary), was 142,217 FTE as at 31 March 2011, a decrease of 3.2 per cent or 4,695 on the previous year.

There were 6,615 FTE minority ethnic officers in the 43 English and Welsh police forces as at 31 March 2011, 4.8 per cent of the total strength, compared with 4.6 per cent a year earlier.

FTE police staff numbers (excluding PCSOs, traffic wardens and designated officers) for the 43 police forces of England and Wales stand at 74,010 as at 31 March 2011, a decrease of 7.0 per cent compared to a year earlier.

The total number of FTE police community support officers in the 43 forces of England and Wales was 15,820 as at 31 March 2011, a decrease of 6.5 per cent on the previous year.

There were 18,421 special constables as at 31 March 2011, 18.8 per cent more than the previous year.

Overall, there were 233,255 FTE staff (officers and staff) working in the 43 police forces of England and Wales.

Source: Home Office – released 21 July 2011

HMIC REVIEW:

The October 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) outlined a 20% cut in the central government police funding grant for all 43 forces in England and Wales by 2014/15 (in real terms).

Police forces and authorities had generally made reasonable assumptions about the financial challenge ahead, and used these to work out their budgets for the next four years:
Across England and Wales, they estimate they will need to save £2.1bn cash by 2014/15.
This translates to an estimated £1.9bn at 2010/11 prices and 14% of their gross revenue expenditure (GRE) in real terms.
However, the cuts vary significantly between forces: from 8% to 19% of GRE in real terms.

Workforce reductions:
Forces started to reduce the size of their workforce in 2010/11 in preparation for the CSR cuts. In order to reflect this, and give a clearer picture of overall workforce reductions across England and Wales, we have taken March 2010 for our starting point in assessing the impact of the CSR on workforce.

Estimated force data suggests that the police workforce in England and Wales will reduce as shown in the following table (numbers have been rounded).

March 2010–March 2015
Police officers 16,200
PCSOs 1,800
Police staff 16,100
Total 34,100

We estimate that this reduction would result in savings of approximately £1.6bn, and take the overall size of the workforce back to its 2003/04 level (with officer numbers reverting to 2001/02 levels).

Just under a third of this 34,100 reduction has happened already; between March 2010 and March 2011 the workforce fell by around 11,200, with 7,600 of
this in the latter half of the financial year. This leaves another 23,000 to go between 31 March 2011 and 31 March 2015.

We defined the policing front line as - "those who are in everyday contact with the public and who directly intervene to keep people safe and enforce the law.?
Detailed data from 42 forces suggests that between March 2010 and March 2012:
• frontline numbers will fall by 2%; and
• non-frontline numbers will fall by 11%.
This implies that for 2011/12, the year for which data is available, forces are planning at this point to protect the front line. It is important to note, however,that the data is a snapshot on a particular day and as such is subject to a degree of fluctuation, especially during a period when forces are in the process of reorganising their workforce.

Looking ahead, maintaining the planned level of protection to frontline/operational numbers of the workforce over the whole CSR period will be very challenging – especially over the next 18 months, as two-thirds of the cuts to central Government funding falls within the first two CSR years (2011/12 and 2012/13).

In addition, some forces are likely to find it more difficult than others to sustain this protection of the front line for the full four-year period. For instance, those forces that both start the CSR with larger financial cuts and spend a relatively high proportion of their budget on the frontline compared to non-frontline; or already have a relatively low proportion of their officers in non-frontline roles compared to frontline roles.

Source: HMIC report 'Adapting to Austerity: a review of police force and authority preparedness for the 2011/12–14/15 CSR period' - 21 July 2011
 

Quotes

"Sadly, I expect thousands of valuable, experienced frontline officers to leave the service before a two-year pay freeze starts in September. This cannot happen and surely any responsible government would agree."

Paul McKeever, chair Police Federation of England and Wales – June 2011

"I want to see a police force trusted by the public, responsive to their needs; professional, respected and effective. I want officers out from behind their desks and back on the streets."

Home Secretary, Theresa May - 2011