Violent crime and Police numbers: The Government cannot continue to ignore the facts

5 March 2019

Kent Police Federation Chairman Chris Carter reacts to Prime Minister Theresa May still failing to recognise the link between police numbers and rising crime – as sadly children are being murdered with knives on our streets.

“Rather than engage in an argument over studies about links between crime and numbers I’d prefer to look at the facts,” said Chris.

“We know police numbers were drastically cut in 2010 and have yet to recover fully. We also know that in that time violent crime and in particular knife related incidents have increased. We also know that the public want to see officers on the beat and want proper use of stop and search powers by officers.”

In 2010, there were 143,734 police officers in England and Wales. There are now 122,395. That's 21,339 fewer. In 2010 Kent Police had 3,787 police officers. There are now 3,333. That's 454 fewer.

According to Government statistics there’s been a 12% increase in police recorded offences involving a knife or sharp instrument in the past year - to 39,332 offences. It’s at the highest level since comparable data began to be collected in April 2010.

Latest Home Office figures show that in the year ending March 2018, there were 279,598 stops and searches conducted by police officers in England and Wales. This was a fall of 8% compared with the previous year and continuing the downward trend since the peak in the year ending March 2011 when there 1,229,324 stop and searches.

Chris added: “The Government surely cannot continue to ignore the facts and what the public are indicating they want. It is interesting that despite a refusal to give policing the resources it needs to tackle this issue, when trouble occurs, the first people the Government go to are the police.”