Police get 94 more bobbies for the beat

Greater Manchester Police has hired nearly 100 extra officers as part of the Government’s promise to swell police forces’ ranks over the next three years, new figures reveal.

The National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) says new officers will join other frontline workers helping to fight the coronavirus pandemic and save lives.

GMP took on 94 recruits in the first six months of the Home Office’s recruitment drive, provisional data from the department shows.

It brings the headcount of officers to 6,919 as of March, but means the force still needs to sign up 253 more to hit its initial target of bringing on board 347 new officers by the same month next year.

The figures form the first update on the Government’s commitment to bolster frontline policing across England and Wales with 20,000 additional officers by March 2023.

They show 3,005 recruits joined up across all 43 forces in the first half-year of the uplift programme, putting them on course to meet the collective goal of 6,000 by March next year.

It is understood many of the new recruits are already out patrolling streets, either as part of training or having completed the course.

Boris Johnson pledged to expand the police service to more than 140,000 officers by mid-2022 if he was elected PM. But police officer numbers in England and Wales had already fallen by more than 20,000 since 2009, with a reduction from 144,353 to 122,395 in 2018.

NPCC chair Martin Hewitt said his organisation was working with the Home Office to keep recruitment going despite the challenges posed by the pandemic.