The Force has exceeded its first year allocation of new officers under the Government’s uplift plan.
Shortly after becoming Prime Minister last year, Boris Johnson announced plans to recruit a total of 20,000 new officers during a three-year programme.
Cambridgeshire was given a Year 1 allocation of 62 new officers but an update from the Government today reveals the Force had taken on a third over this with 99 extra officers recruited by the end of September.
“These new recruits are very welcome,” says Liz Groom, chair of Cambridgeshire Police Federation, “The austerity years when budgets were cut meant that we lost a significant number of officers at a time when demand for our services escalated.
“While it will take some time for the new officers to have an impact on existing officers’ workload, they will make a difference. But we now need to hope that the Government adopts a consistent approach to recruitment so that numbers do not start to tail off once the period of the uplift programme comes to an end.”
National Federation chair John Apter, responding to the Government’s update on the uplift, said more needs to be done to attract new police recruits with previous life experience and those from military or public sector backgrounds.
He explained: “To have a healthy mix of new recruits with life experience is good for policing and essential. We will continue to raise this point with the Home Office. As the programme continues, it is also vital for the service to be more representative and reflect the communities we serve. More needs to be done to recruit officers from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds.
“While good progress has been made, we need to continue to do all we can to ensure policing is an attractive profession for all members of the communities we serve.”