Staffordshire Police Federation secretary Glyn Pattinson says he’s encouraged that the Force is on track with its recruitment plan.
Glyn said the new officers were a welcome addition to the Force.
Now Glyn has called for improved pay and conditions to ensure the Force is able to retain its new recruits as well as its experienced officers.
He was speaking after new Home Office figures showed Staffordshire currently has 1,849 officers compared to 1,648 at the start of the Government’s Uplift programme in March 2019, an increase of 201 officers.
Staffordshire Police’s allocation in the first two years of the programme was 180 officers, with a final allocation of 300 when it finishes in March 2023.
Glyn said: “The last two years have been challenging for recruitment and training with the pandemic, the lockdowns, and distancing rules, so it’s really encouraging to see we’re on target with our recruitment drive.
“We welcome all of our new colleagues and wish them all the best.
“The key thing now is to ensure that, after years of cuts to policing, that we do all we can to retain them and our experienced colleagues too.
“And that means investment in our people, with a proper pay rise for officers who’ve seen their wages plummet in real terms during the austerity years.
“And it means investment in our infrastructure to support them in their work to serve and protect the public.”
Nationally, there were 142,526 police officers in England and Wales as at March 31. That’s an increase of 13,576 towards the target of 20,000 extra officers by March 2023, the Home Office said.
