Cambridgeshire Police Federation chair Liz Groom has urged the new government to listen to the voices of police officers to help resolve the retention crisis in policing.
Liz said it was concerning that more than 9,000 officers left policing in England and Wales in the year ending 31 March, the second highest in a financial year.
Liz said the hard work of the Uplift Programme risked being undermined as she warned of the cost to the public purse of the current retention crisis.
“The figures are concerning and illustrate what the Federation and police officers have been saying that the erosion of pay and conditions, a failure to address morale, issues around infrastructure and equipment, all have an impact,” said Liz.
“We’re seeing that play out with record numbers leaving the service, with many of them young in service.
“A lot of hard work went into the Uplift programme and there’s a significant cost to the taxpayer in recruiting and training officers, so it’s more important than ever to ensure retention of officers is a top priority.
“As a Federation we will continue to push for a fair pay mechanism and for better conditions for our members.
“We urge the new government to listen to us and work with us to improve conditions for members and resolve the retention crisis.”
The Home Office figures show that in the year to 31 March, the number of police officers in Cambridgeshire rose by 16 (0.9 per cent).
However, of the 103 officers who left the Force (excluding transfers) 66 (64 per cent) did so through voluntary resignation.
Liz said: “Our own pay and morale survey found that 14 per cent of respondents in Cambridgeshire intend to resign in the next two years or as soon as possible.
“The reasons behind that included morale, how the police were treated by the last government, and the impact of the job on officers’ mental health.
“We need to look at these reasons. There comes a point where we need to go upstream to see why people are falling into the river rather than keep pulling them out.”
Nationally, of the 9,080 officers who left, 43 per cent (3,964) had less than five years’ service, the Home Office said.
The most common reason for leaving policing was voluntary resignation (56 per cent of leavers).
The leaver rate for police officer voluntary resignations was the highest on record at 3.4 per cent, and similar to the previous year (3.3 per cent). Voluntary resignations have been on a general upward trend since the year ending March 2012 when it was as low as 0.8 per cent.
Of police officers leaving via voluntary resignation in the year ending 31 March 2024, 72 per cent had less than five years’ service and a further 10 per cent had between five and 10 years’ service, the Home Office said.
In the past year, 9,479 officers joined the service, a decrease of 6,848 on the previous year when 16,328 officers joined. At 31 March 2024, there were 147,746 officers, a 0.2 per cent increase from 147,434 on the previous year.