Almost 6,000 police officers hired in first year of recruitment drive

Police forces hired almost 6,000 officers in the first year of the Government’s recruitment drive to sign up 20,000 by 2023.

The overall provisional headcount of officers in England and Wales is now 134,885, according to Home Office figures to the end of September.

This includes 5,824 hired as part of the 20,000 pledge, a quarterly report on the progress of the scheme said, suggesting the recruitment campaign is on track to meet its first year target of 6,000 by March 2021.

So far, 107,656 applications to become a police officer have been received since the campaign launched in October last year.

The new recruits hired as part of the campaign are in addition to those filling existing vacancies or joining police forces as a result of other job adverts.

Boris Johnson vowed to swell the police service to more than 140,000 officers by mid-2022 as part of his election bid to become Prime Minister.

Police officer numbers in England and Wales fell by more than 20,000 between 2009 and 2018.

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