Staffordshire Police Federation chair Lee Robinson has urged the Force to do all it can to retain new recruits after policing minister Chris Philp said officer numbers were expected to reach the highest levels in history when new figures are announced next week.
Mr Philp told GMB he was confident that records would be broken when the latest data is published on 26 April.
He said: “There is going to be an announcement next week and I am confident it will show that we will have record numbers of police - more police than we have ever had at any point in the history of England and Wales.
“The previous high point was in March 2010 when there were about 145,000 police officers in England and Wales and I am expectantly confident that when the figures are published next week we will have comfortably exceeded that previous high point.”
But Lee warned officer retention was still an issue and urged the Force to work hard to keep hold of its new recruits.
He said: “We supported the Police Uplift Programme and welcome the boost to officer numbers.
“But now the uplift programme has come to an end we have to make sure officer numbers are maintained so it is essential that the Force does everything it can to make sure attrition rates for new recruits are kept low.
“That means making sure young officers feel valued, well-supported, well-trained and are given the right uniform, equipment and resources.
“It is about making Staffordshire Police an attractive place to work.”
Mr Philp refused to speculate on the precise figure expected to be unveiled next week but insisted the number of officers in England and Wales would be “some margin higher, some thousands higher”.
The minister blamed previous administrations when confronted with evidence that police numbers went down by more than 20,000 between 2010 and 2017 when, according to the Home Office, there were just 121,929 officers.
Mr Philp said: “The reason police officer numbers fell in the years immediately after 2010 - and there were spending constraints in other public services as well - is because the outgoing Labour government left the country essentially bankrupt and George Osborne had to take difficult decisions to put it back in order.
“Since we have managed to get the economy into better shape, we have been able to fund additional police officers to make up for not just those who were unfortunately reduced, but we are going to go beyond that and have more officers than we had in 2010.”
