New recruits welcomed but Force still needs more investment, says Fed chair

27 January 2022

West Midlands Police Federation chair Rich Cooke says the Government’s recruitment programme won’t go far enough to help the Force serve and protect the public.

The latest figures show there were 7,445 police officers in West Midlands Police as at 30 September last year. This is up from 6,846 on 30 September 2020, an increase of 8.8 per cent.

Rich welcomed the increase in officer numbers, but says they need to be backed with investment in the support infrastructure and equipment. He says that new recruits are being let down by a combination of high student to tutor ratios and left feeling unsupported in some of the most challenging areas of the Force.

“We welcome all the new officers who have joined us in West Midlands,” said Rich, who spent yesterday at Tally Ho, discussing these issues with training staff, “It is much needed to help us serve and protect our communities.”

Rich Cooke is pictured with PS Phil Tedstill, training supervisor, at Tally Ho yesterday.

But he added: “Recruiting officers is only part of the story; good police officers need to be nurtured and developed. I know of teams in Birmingham city centre today, one of the busiest and violent places to work in the UK, let alone the West Midlands, where we have as many of 12 student officers working with only two experienced officers and sergeant.

“Talking to some, they feel let down and abandoned and at times scared. Support in terms of tutors and experienced colleagues is just not there. We see tutor constables who are expected to take on three or four students at a time. They simply cannot give them the time and support they need, something my generation took for granted.

“IT also means the role of tutor constable which can, and should be, a very rewarding one, is often shunned by experienced officers simultaneously managing large workloads of their own. My fear is we are storing up problems for the future in the rush to meet arbitrarily set Government targets.

“Already we are seeing an increase in Regulation 12 and 13 referrals (extension of probation or termination of employment) where there are performance or developmental issues, as well as officers who feel they have no choice but to resign.

“We cannot address deep seated problems contributed to by years of underfunding, with officer numbers alone. Poorly trained and inexperienced officers can create more problems by becoming a target for attack themselves or feeling unable to assist colleagues, as we have seen.

“We owe it to all our officers and the public to get this right. Expectations on joining the service must be managed and realistic but, above all, we have to properly support our newer colleagues instead of the sink or swim sense that some have described to me. On top of all this, of course, student officers are required to complete regular academic work and, in our Force, are constantly rotated between departments and geographic locations, so they never get the sense of belonging in an area that I found so important at the start of my career.”

He concluded: “If we’re to reduce crime and give our communities the service they deserve then we need to be properly resourced, not just in terms of officer numbers but with the infrastructure, equipment, training and support – and that needs sustained, long-term investment.”

Nationally, the Home Office’s Police Uplift Programme statistics revealed there were 139,939 officers in England and Wales as of 31 December  – an increase of 11,505 officers.

A total of 11,048 have been recruited from funding for the Police Uplift Programme and contributed towards the Government target of 20,000 by March 2023 – 55 per cent of the target.

If the 20,000 target is achieved, it would bring officer numbers up to around 148,000, which is slightly above the number of officers in 2010.

The interim chair  of the Police Federation of England and Wales, Ché Donald, said: “Not only do we have an exponentially expanding population which has grown by four million in the last decade, but the level of crime has increased and become far more complex. In addition, the time officers spend dealing with non-crime issues, such as helping vulnerable people and those in mental health crises, has also risen.

“We need long-term recruitment and sustainable funding in policing, and police leaders must ensure they don’t just focus on getting people through the door, but also do what is needed to retain them, such as fair pay processes, investment in wellbeing and better benefits, as retention is still a problem across the service.

“Forces must also ensure new recruits are given the most appropriate integrated learning that equips them for the reality of policing. These officers are joining after a period when the infrastructure of policing around training and assessments was similarly decimated, and we aren’t sure that forces have shaped themselves to deal with the influx of officers. We need quality not just quantity to ensure the public gets the best service we can provide.”