Police Numbers in England & Wales
How many police are there in England and Wales?
There were 144,833 police officers (full-time equivalents) in England and Wales on 30 September 2009. (This includes 144,353 police officers in the 43 police forces of England and Wales and 480 officers seconded to central services.)
How does this compare with previous years?
Police officer numbers for the 43 English and Welsh forces have increased by 2,121 (or 1.5 per cent) compared with September 2008 and have increased by 583 (or 0.4 per cent) compared with March 2009.
Police staff numbers for the 43 English and Welsh forces stand at 80,322 (full-time equivalents), an increase of 2,350 (3.0 per cent) compared with September 2008, and an increase of 1,026 (1.3 per cent) compared with March 2009.
What about police community support officers?
There were 16,814 full-time equivalent police community support officers, or PCSOs, in the 43 English and Welsh police forces on 30 September 2009 (a 6.8 per cent increase since September 2008, and a 1.9 per cent increase since March 2009).
What about special constables?
There were 14,516 special constables in the 43 forces of England and Wales (an increase of 0.4 per cent since September 2008, and an increase of 1.9 per cent since March 2009).
Will the number of police be cut?
Home Secretary Theresa May commented in June, 2010:
The spending review has not begun yet, so we don't know the exact figures, but I must be clear. The cuts will be big, they will be tough to achieve, and they will fall on the police as they will on other important public services.'
Crimlinks has published the full speech here.