Police officers are exhausted, undervalued and are leaving in record numbers

16 September 2025

Police officers are exhausted, undervalued and are leaving in record numbers, Norfolk Police Federation has said, as new figures show the county only has 205 officers per 100,000 population.

This is lower than the average for England and Wales, which is 219 officers per 100,000 population, according to The Home Office Police Workforce Open Data Tables.

London has the most officers per 100,000 population, at 383, while the West Midlands sits at the lowest end, with just 88 per 100,000.

Andy Symonds, Chair of Norfolk Police Federation, said: “Norfolk has 1,911 officers for a population of 932,000 – which means there are 205 officers per 100,000 population. Is it any wonder my members here in Norfolk are exhausted?

“This summer has been relentless for them. They have suffered short-notice changes to their duties, and precious rest days that they should be spending with their families have been cancelled. But they’ve responded admirably, as they always do. We’ve seen officers deployed to protests in Norwich pretty much every weekend of the summer, and this continues.

“People don’t see the personal impact that policing these additional incidents has on my colleagues. They are already busy policing the business-as-usual incidents, which is demanding as it is. They are working so hard that they’re like a car that’s constantly being revved in the red at 8000rpm – it will eventually blow up and need fixing.

“These stark realities are why our communities say they hardly ever see a bobby on the beat. No, they don’t, as they are so stretched dealing with the plethora of incidents that somehow, over many years, have become police business – even though much of it has nothing to do with crime.”

Policing has become the catch-all service for all of society’s issues, Andy said. He continued: “We need far better funding from the Government to properly invest in policing. Not being drip-fed small amounts that don’t allow us to even stand still, let alone make progress.

“We also require stronger leadership to breathe new life into policing, by giving confidence back to police officers to make strong, sensible and pragmatic decisions out on the street. To act without fear or favour. To not become embroiled in people’s lives when we have no business to do so.

“Is it any wonder that we are seeing the highest number of resignations since records began? Nearly 5,000 officers left voluntarily in the past year. And over 70% of these with less than five years’ of service. Those officers leaving can see very early on in their careers that the service is broken.”