Force ahead of recruitment target

29 January 2021

Humberside Police Federation chair Pete Musgrave has welcomed new Home Office figures that show the Force is ahead of schedule in its drive to recruit more officers.

The Force has had an uplift of 129 officers during the first year of a Government campaign aiming to increase the number of police in England and Wales by 20,000 in three years.

It’s a third more than its first year allocation of 97 officers.

“It’s pleasing to see the Force ahead of schedule in its recruitment,” said Pete, It’s a really good start to the three-year campaign, particularly given the difficulty in recruiting new officers because of the coronavirus restrictions.

“It’ll make a difference to our members to have extra officers on the ground during an unprecedented period of policing the pandemic and carrying out their day jobs.

“The challenge now is to ensure we retain these new recruits, and our experienced officers as well, as we move into the next stage of the recruitment drive.”

The Home Office figures also revealed that since April 2020, almost 42 per cent of new recruits to Humberside Police have been female and 2.5 per cent who stated their ethnicity were from Black, Asian, mixed, or other ethnic group.

Pete said: “It’s so important that we’re representative of the communities we’re policing, and this recruitment campaign is an opportunity to ensure we have a diverse Force that reflects that. We are taking steps in the right direction and we need to build on this.”

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.

National Federation 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.”