Up to 30,000 police for London by March next year - MPA welcomes continued growth

62/03
04 September 2003

The number of police officers in London continues to grow and should achieve the target of 29,856 by March 2004, the Metropolitan Police Authority’s human resources committee heard today. With the target of 770 Police and Community Support Officers also well within sight, the overall strength will be at least 30,626 before next spring.

The respective strengths for both visible ethnic minority (VEM) and women police officers are also increasing in line with projections. At the end June 2003, VEM officer strength had increased to 1,628 officers or 5.6% of overall police strength. During the same period of time, the strength of women officer strength increased to 4,867 officers or 16.9% of overall strength.

Rachel Whittaker, Chair of the committee, said:

“The continued growth in police numbers is good news for Londoners who have demanded higher visibility policing that is more sensitive to the concerns and needs of Londoners.

“We are determined to see as many as possible of the additional police men and women going to the boroughs where they will help tackle the types of crime that are of most concern to our diverse communities, such as anti-social behaviour, burglary and vandalism. Their efforts will be boosted by the presence of Police Community Support Officers, introduced last year to help police patrol our streets and increase public confidence.”

The committee heard that the level of police wastage is showing signs of improvement and provides evidence of the impact of retention measures recently introduced. Between April and June 2003, 409 officers have left the MPS compared with 470 leavers in the same period last year. This is particularly encouraging since the current police workforce strength is 1,931 greater than at the end of June 2002.

Since April 2003, 763 police officers have been recruited, of whom there were 89 (11.7%) VEM and 164 (21.5%) women officers.

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