Cumbria Police is facing “a constant stream of resignations every month”, meaning that a huge amount of policing experience was being lost, the Chair of Cumbria Police Federation has said.

Ed Russell was speaking as new Home Office figures showed that, since 2019, the number of experienced officers has been falling by 150 every month nationally.

In the past seven years, the total number of officers nationally with more than 10 years' service has fallen from 83,987 to 71,274. Over the same period, the number of officers with less than 10 years of experience has risen from 44,007 to 77,178.

In 2019, experienced officers made up almost two thirds of forces. Now those with 10 years’ service are outnumbered by their more inexperienced colleagues.

Ed said: “Let’s be blunt, and this is not to disparage the hard work and commitment of our younger colleagues in any way, but there is no substitute in policing for experience.

“Experienced officers tutor and guide their colleagues through the complexities of the Criminal Justice System, alongside such difficult roles as response policing, volume and serious investigations, and safeguarding, to name but a few. This problem is felt acutely in Cumbria, where we are still losing well in excess of the national average in terms of officer numbers, with a constant stream of resignations every month.

“Why is this? Officers’ workloads are some of the highest they’ve ever been, a recent morale survey can only be described as ‘catastrophic’, and officers continue to have their shifts changed, rest days cancelled, and duties extended with little to no notice.”

Ed said that the Government’s Police Uplift Programme was much-needed, but that the focus for all forces should be the retention of the existing workforce.

He continued: “Officers are driven to help the public, to do their best and understand that policing requires some sacrifices. No one, however, should come in to work to find that every single shift for the next week has been changed, and to constantly have plans cancelled at the last minute. To never be certain that your allotted rest days will in fact be that.

“Police officers are resilient, hardworking people who deal with cases of death, injury, serious assault and the most harrowing of incidents on a daily basis, but without the appropriate time to process, decompress and recover from these incidents, cases of poor mental health and burnout are on the increase. The trend in officer resignations will only be addressed when forces put officers first, listen to their concerns and address them with meaningful action.”