The Force has taken on 157 extra officers under Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Police Uplift scheme, according to new figures released by the Government.
Statistics from the Home Office showed the Force had 1,683 frontline officers at the end of last month with new recruits joining up as part of the Government scheme to boost numbers by 20,000 nationwide by 2023.
Cambridgeshire Police Federation chair Liz Groom welcomed the rise in officer numbers.
She said: “The rise in officer numbers is to be welcomed but it has to be taken in the context of the huge reductions the police service has had to contend with in recent years.
“Policing has also undergone quite dramatic changes over the last few years, not least because of the pandemic, with higher public expectations and a more negative and critical media all adding to the growing pressure on the police service and individual officers.
“So while the uplift has to be seen as positive, it only answers one aspect of the many challenges faced by policing today and we need to see sustained, long-term investment in policing and in police officers.”
The new Home Office figures showed a provisional headcount of 139,908 officers in England and Wales at the end of September with 11,053 recruited from funding for the Police Uplift programme which has a target of 20,000 new officers by March 2023.
A further 421 additional officers have been recruited through other funding streams such as local council tax precepts during the same period.
Forces saw more women joining the ranks between July and September 2021 with female officers accounting for 45 per cent (1,451) of all new recruits during that time.