We Need 15,000 More Bobbies On The Beat

The Chair of Hampshire Police Federation has welcomed Labour’s plans for 13,000 more bobbies on the beat, but said that 15,000 would be nearer the mark.

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper recently announced that if Labour got into power, they planned to recruit 13,000 more neighbourhood police and PCSOs to “take Britain’s town centres back from thugs and thieves”. She also blamed the Conservatives for a “decade of dereliction” on law and order.

Hampshire Police Federation Chair Zoë Wakefield thinks this is a positive proposal, but said: “In our force, we’ve already recruited massively, we’ve had something like 1,500 officers come through the doors, yet we still aren’t back at our 2010 numbers.

“So recruitment nationally probably needs to be around the 50,000 mark, because you’ve got officers naturally retiring. We’ve also got an issue with a lot of officers resigning and going to other, better-paid jobs.

“And, even with the 20,000 that were recruited in the uplift, there were a portion who didn’t make it through or it wasn’t for them, because policing isn’t an easy job.”