Record numbers of officers quit police service
26 July 2023
Record numbers of police officers are quitting the service across England and Wales, according to new Home Office data.
The figures reveal a total of 4,668 officers resigned between April 2022 and March 2023.
This is the highest number since comparable records began 16 years ago and shows a 32 per cent increase on the 3,533 who left the service in 2021/22.
West Mercia Police saw 78 officers resign from the Force in the 12 months to last March, according to the figures.
A further six retired on medical grounds during the same period and 89 took normal retirement.
Some 32 officers transferred to another force while two officers were dismissed, taking the total number of leavers to 207.
Record numbers of officers are turning their backs on policing
West Mercia Police Federation chair Barry Horton said the figures should not be ignored.
He said: “I’m not particularly surprised by the figures because we are aware that many of our members have become disillusioned with policing, with the pay and conditions, with the ever-increasing workload and with the growing demands and pressures of the job.
“Our members have faced years of cuts and under-investment in the service, shortages in manpower and resources and failures in systems and processes.
“We have seen huge cuts to the number of police staff and this has had a massive impact on the workload of officers who have had to take on the extra administrative work left behind.
“This has created an overstretched, under pressure workforce with officers having to deal with more issues than ever before so it’s no surprise that many have just decided enough's enough and handed in their notice.
“And it is only going to get worse unless we see these issues being addressed by the Government.
“Policing needs urgent investment across the whole service or good, experienced officers will continue to take their talents elsewhere.”
The departures were highlighted as the Home Office hailed the success of the Police Uplift Programme which saw the recruitment of more than 20,000 officers across the country.
West Mercia Police was given an allocation of an extra 311 officers when the programme was launched in 2019 but exceeded that figure by 19 to bring in a total of 330 new recruits.
The latest revised figures show the Force had a total of 2,479 officers as of March 31.
