New figures released today show that almost 21,000 police officers have been recruited in England and Wales through the Police Officer Uplift since September 2019. Backed by £3.6 billion in extra funding, the total number of officers stands at 149,572 – the highest number ever.
This is an historic moment for our country. We have delivered on the promise we made to the British people which means more police on the beat preventing violence, solving burglaries, and cracking down on antisocial behaviour.
These new officers are changing the face of policing. They are more representative of the communities they serve, and this offers a unique chance to deliver the highest standards and common-sense policing expected by the public
Our police are truly the best in the world. They protect our people and communities, and this government is committed to ensuring that they are well resourced so they can tackle crime on Britain’s streets.
I am even more delighted to see that the picture is even better locally; we now have a greater police presence in every community and Sussex has more police officers than in 2012. Since 2020, the Government’s Uplift Programme has funded an extra 429 officers across the county. With the local precept funding 250 more officers and Government funding 429, this gives Sussex a total of 679 additional police officers today.
These extra officers are helping forces tackle street crime, burglary, rural crime, and business crime.
The impact of the Police Officer Uplift speaks for itself. Residential burglary is down over 40%, theft from the person is down 32% and neighbourhood crime is down 32.8% over the past years compared to a 21% reduction nationally.
I want to take a moment to thank all our police officers for their unwavering bravery, fortitude, and sacrifice in the line of duty. Policing is a complex and demanding job and much of what police officers and staff do to keep us safe goes on unseen, 24hrs a day, all year round. I salute them and today I reaffirm my commitment to ensure that police forces across the country they have all the resources they need to do their jobs properly.
