LAW ENFORCEMENT
Police need double the number of recruits
Home Secretary Priti Patel has been advised by one of the UK’s most senior police officers that the Government needs to attract twice the number of recruits to get the forces back to 2009 levels.
Addressing the Police Superintendents’ Association (PSA) Annual Conference, the Home Secretary acknowledged that policing had been underfunded and under-supported and outlined her determination to properly address and ‘reset’ the situation.
Echoing the pledge from Prime Minister Boris Johnson, she said: “I will do everything as Home Secretary to empower you to do your jobs. Restoring pride in policing is what I intend to do.”
On the issue of officer recruitment, the Home Secretary reiterated that funding was now in place to recruit 20,000 new police officers, but Chief Superintendent Paul Griffiths, President of the PSA, reminded her in his own speech that, in order to restore officer numbers to their 2009 levels, approximately 40,000 officers would need to be recruited.
Patel also spoke about steps that she would be taking to assist and improve officer health, wellbeing and family support through the adoption and development of the Police Covenant.
In a change to what has been said before, the Home Secretary indicated that both the Police Federation of England and Wales and the PSA would be invited to attend sessions of the recently convened National Policing Board.
The Police Federation welcomes the development, but would continue to press for full representation for all police staff associations at the National Policing Board.
To better protect police officers, the Home Secretary said that she would be working with others in Government to review the sentencing guidelines which courts could administer to those who were found guilty of assaulting police officers, but gave no specific policy proposals in her speech.
Police Federation national chair John Apter, who had a meeting with the Home Secretary before she made her speech, commented: “Both the previous Home Secretary and Priti Patel have made it clear that policing has not been given the priority that it should have been afforded. The positive stance coming from the Home Office, and indeed wider Government, is refreshing and something we haven’t seen in over a decade.”
Apter concluded: “I welcome this and look forward to working with the Home Office to bring about the positive change to policing that’s being proposed and is so desperately needed.”
