Force recruitment drive success

29 January 2021

Hertfordshire Police Federation chair Geoff Bardell says the Force is making “really good progress” with its drive to boost officer numbers.

The Force has seen an uplift of 111 officers in Year 1 of the Government’s three-year campaign to increase officer numbers across England and Wales by 20,000.

Hertfordshire’s allocation in the first year was 91, putting the Force ahead of schedule in its recruitment drive.

“The Force is making really good progress with its drive, particularly given the difficulties in recruiting new officers during the pandemic,” said Geoff, “We welcome them all these new joiners to the Force and wish them every success.

“They will help us to continue to police the pandemic and protect the public, as well as serving our communities with the day-to-day policing they expect to see.

“We now need to ensure that as the recruitment campaign continues, we’re working to retain our new recruits and our existing, experienced officers as well.”

The Home Office figures also revealed that since April 2020, almost 40 per cent of new recruits to Hertfordshire Police have been female and 6.1 per cent who stated their ethnicity were Black, Asian, mixed, or another ethnic group.

“We need to work hard to ensure we’re recruiting from right across society,” Geoff said, “It’s crucial we’re representative of the communities we serve and this campaign is the chance to ensure we have a diverse police Force.”

Nationally, the Home Office figures show there were 135,248 officers in the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales as at 31 December 2020 – an increase of 6,814 officers.

Federation national chair John Apter, said: “With demands on police officers increasing and the continuing challenge policing the pandemic, it’s good to see the number of new recruits increasing.

“There simply aren’t enough officers at this time and the pandemic has shown just how fragile the resilience of the police service is as more and more officers report sick or self-isolate.”

He added: “We need to ensure there’s a consistent long-term recruitment programme and that everything possible is done not just to recruit, but also to retain those who join.

“We also need to see ensure that we don’t drive down the average age of recruits and continue to attract people with life experience. In addition, we need to use this recruitment drive to ensure a diverse police service, so that forces fully reflect the communities they serve.”