New officers make Cambridgeshire Police as large as it has ever been

Officer numbers at Cambridgeshire Police are at a record high.

By the end of March this year, 145 officers had been recruited above the force’s baseline, comfortably above the 124 allocated for the programme.

The year three allocation for Cambridgeshire is 82 officers. These figures are on top of the “normal” anticipated recruitment levels, which ordinarily cater for retirements and those leaving for other reasons.

The current officer headcount is 1671 – the most in the force’s history.

Nationally, the Home Office figures show 13,576 additional officers have been recruited under the programme, above the target figure of 12,000 by the end of year two.

The ambition is to have 20,000 new officers recruited by March next year.

There are also more women and people from diverse backgrounds serving as police officers than ever before and the figures show women account for 42.4% of new recruits while ethnic minorities account for 11.7%.

In Cambridgeshire, 34.7% of officers are women, a rise of almost 4% in four years, and 4.6% of officers are from ethnic minorities, a rise of 1.3% from four years ago, but still below the county population of 9.7%.

Chief Constable Nick Dean said: “It is great news that we have hit our year two target and the increase in officer numbers is good news for the county.

“It will contribute towards an enhanced policing service for the public and the force is now in a good position to push on to this year’s target.

“However, we cannot afford to rest on our laurels, and recruitment work continues to get people with the right attributes and skills to consider policing as a career. I would urge anyone interested in policing as a career to visit our website to get more information and apply."