Force has recruited almost 300 extra officers

30 October 2020

The Force had recruited 292 extra officers through the Government’s uplift programme by the end of September this year, according to Government statistics issued today.

West Midlands Police was given a Year 1 allocation of 366 officers as part of the Government’s plans to recruit 20,000 more officers over a three-year period.

“Given that the Force had to pretty much start from a standstill with this recruitment process given the years of austerity when recruiting came to a halt, it is steadily making up ground and is well on the way to reaching its target for the first year,” says Steve Grange, secretary of West Midlands Police Federation.

“Of course, we welcome these additional officers but it will be some time before we truly start to see their impact in terms of sharing the workload.

“During the budget cuts, officers were stretched to the limit, meeting increased demand with reduced resources, and we now need to see a sustained and consistent recruitment programme so that we can get out numbers back to where they should be if we are to provide a high quality policing service for our communities.”

National Federation chair John Apter, responding to the Government’s update on the uplift, said more needs to be done to attract new police recruits with previous life experience and those from military or public sector backgrounds.

He explained: “To have a healthy mix of new recruits with life experience is good for policing and essential. We will continue to raise this point with the Home Office. As the programme continues, it is also vital for the service to be more representative and reflect the communities we serve. More needs to be done to recruit officers from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds.

“While good progress has been made, we need to continue to do all we can to ensure policing is an attractive profession for all members of the communities we serve.”