Essex has lost more than 600 officers, new figures show

FIGURES published by the Government show Essex Police currently has 2,965 ‪‎police officers – that is 641 fewer than there were in 2010.‬‬‬

The police workforce strength statistics show there are now 125,185 police officers in England and Wales.

That’s 18,549 fewer officers than in 2010.

There has also been a 1,893 fall in police officer numbers since this time last year.

The figures – from September 2015 – show that there are also 18,054 fewer members of police staff working in England and Wales than there were in 2009.

And 1,062 fewer than this time last year.

There were also 960 fewer police community support officers (a 7.5% fall) and 722 fewer Special constables (a 4.3% drop).

Mark Smith, Chairman of Essex Police Federation, said: “Cuts Have Consequences – and these continued cuts are going to affect the service the public is going to get.

“It’s going to affect the visibility of police officers out there and I think it already is having an impact. We can see violent crime in Essex is up, I can’t say directly related to fewer police officers around, but it’s not a coincidence.

“While we’re going through these cuts, road traffic accidents and road deaths, serious road collisions are on the up as well. I think this is what we’re seeing, we’re seeing consequences of cuts.

“I’m hoping that within Essex we’ll stabilise on police numbers now, and who knows, in the future maybe when we get to the end of comprehensive spending reviews and we’ve made all our savings, maybe we can start getting some investment in policing again.

“It would be nice to get back into the 3,000 area over the next few years, but whether that will happen or not I really don’t know.”

National policing lead on workforce development, Chief Constable Giles York said: “Alongside colleagues, we must also do everything possible to look after our own people – avoiding unacceptable levels of stress, investing in them as professionals and offering advice or support where it’s needed.

“Our duty is to protect and serve. We remain committed to delivering the effective and efficient policing our communities expect.”

The Police Federation of England and Wales said the public were being “short-changed”.

A statement added: “There is nothing good to say about a cut of nearly 4,000 people from the total ‘policing family’, at a time when officer resilience should be our main concern.”