‘Alarming rise in voluntary resignations must be tackled’
13 August 2026
More work must be carried out to tackle the alarming increase in voluntary resignations from the Force, says West Midlands Police Federation chair Jess Davies.
According to the latest police workforce statistics released by the Government last month, 566 officers left the Force in the 12 months up until 31 March 2026, with 271 of those being voluntary resignations. In the 12 months up until 31 March 2021, 67 officers resigned voluntarily. This represents an increase of around 400 per cent over the five-year period.
“I am quite shocked at these figures,” says Jess, “For this number of officers to leave the police service, there are clearly issues and more work has to go into understanding what they are and then addressing them. We cannot just sit back and allow this to continue.
“In the year ending 31 March this year, the most common reason for leaving the Force was voluntary resignation at 51.4 per cent.”
The Government figures show that 792 people joined the Force in the period covered by the bulletin and that overall the Force’s officer numbers increased by 2.3 per cent, the sixth highest for all forces across England and Wales, behind Cumbria, Dyfed Powys, Dorset, Northumbria and Staffordshire.
Disturbing
However, there were disturbing figures in terms of the service profile of those leaving policing, with many having only a few years’ service.
Police officers voluntarily resigning from the service nationwide in the year to 31 March 2026 were more likely to be newer officers, with 60.6 per cent of all police officers voluntarily resigning having less than five years’ service. In addition, 17.2 per cent had between five years and less than ten years’ service.
“We are in danger of slipping into a situation where there is an almost constant revolving door of officers coming in through one door just to leave pretty quickly through another,” says Jess.
“So, are we recruiting the wrong people or are we just not doing enough to ensure our young in service officers are adequately trained and supported during their first years within the Force? Perhaps they have unrealistic expectations of what modern day policing is like or maybe the demands and challenges of the role are too much.
“But from my conversations with officers at the Federation roadshows around the Force area and engagement with members, I just don’t feel there is enough support offered to our new recruits and young in service officers, and I think some of our more experienced officers could also benefit from having access to extra support too.
“Morale is low and the Federation’s Copped Enough campaign is highlighting the real pressures officers are facing: officers are 21 per cent worse off in real terms than they were in 2010, a third of officers are struggling to afford food, rent or heating, 86 officers are the victims of assaults every day and mental health crises are soaring.”
Quality
Jess added: “I am not sure I have the answers but I am absolutely convinced that we need to do more to understand why so many people are leaving policing and why so many of our new recruits are not staying.
“It is not cost-effective for the Force to invest in recruiting and training processes only for these officers to decide to quit in a relatively short time.
“Our aim is to provide a quality policing service for our communities and, while we have a high turn-over of new recruits coupled with the loss of many of our more experienced officers due to retirement, that is going to be difficult to achieve.”
Within the 566 leavers, there were around 60 medical retirements and also 212 who left through normal retirement.
The proportion of officers leaving the service via normal retirement has also been decreasing since the year ending March 2018, from 63.3 per cent to 35.7 per cent in the year ending 31 March 2024. Since the year ending March 2024 the proportion of normal retirements has increased slightly each year to 37.7 per cent in the year ending 31 March 2026.
The Government figures showed the total paid police workforce nationally (including officers, staff, police community support officers (PCSOs) and designated officers) as at 31 March 2026, was 234,441 full-time equivalents (FTE), a decrease of 0.6 per cent (1,332 FTE) on the previous year (235,773 FTE).
Decreases were seen in all paid worker types, with police officers down 0.4 per cent (566 FTE), PCSOs down 0.8 per cent (55 FTE) and police staff and designated officers down 0.9 per cent (710 FTE).
Across England and Wales, 43,525 police officers (headcount) had less than five years of service as at 31 March 2026, which accounted for 29.4 per cent of all police officers.
The number and proportion of officers with less than five years of service has been increasing from 14.4 per cent of all police officers in March 2016 (when data collection on length of service began), to 29.4 per cent of all police officers in the latest year.
