‘Green Shoots Of Recovery’ As Essex Reaches 3,000 Officers Again

NEWS that Essex Police now has 3,000 police officers represent the ‘green shoots of recovery’, according to Essex Police Federation.

An increase in the Council Tax precept has led to another 150 additional officers being added to the force ranks, which as of April totalled 3,045 including 139 trainees.

Essex police lost nearly 700 officers as a result of cuts to police budgets since 2010.

Steve Taylor, Essex Police Federation Chairman, said force strength was now heading back towards those pre-austerity levels but that there were still some issues to consider.

He said: “It’s good news. It’s the green shoots of recovery and it’s us moving in the right direction. We welcome it of course.

“What we are starting to become concerned about is the migration of skills away from that front line.

“We all have to learn our trade and the best place for us to do that is the front line, is local response teams up and down the county.

“As their numbers are swelling with new recruits – which we welcome, which is positive – we have to be careful that we’ve got the right experience there to train them, to bring them through the processes we have in place to make them effective and capable officers.

“One of the unintended consequences of us growing our numbers again is the swelling of some of our specialist resources, invariably at the cost of experience on the front line. So, we watch that. We try and keep our eye on that ball as well.”