Government breaking its promise on police officer recruitment, say Buckingham Lib Dems

The government is failing to deliver the promised 609 more police officers for Thames Valley Police, say Buckingham Liberal Democrats.

Analysis of Home Office statistics by the Lib Dems has shown that Thames Valley’s total officer numbers instead fell by 29 in the last year.

With just 229 extra officers having been recruited by Thames Valley Police under the government’s campaign, which started in September 2019, the Lib Dem analysis suggests Thames Valley Police needs to increase recruitment to 25 per month over the next 15 months to get to the 609 officers we are forecast to need.

Buckingham Liberal Democrats say there needs to be a return to full and proper community policing and are calling out the government for failing to keep their promise to communities.

Anja Schaefer, chair of Buckingham Constituency Liberal Democrats, said: “Rural crime is a real issue that people in our communities are bringing up when they talk to us.

"Far too many local crimes are going unsolved.

"We desperately need more police on our streets and in our communities.

“Liberal Democrats are calling for a return to proper community policing, where officers are visible, trusted and known personally to local people.”

“The Conservatives’ pledge to boost police officer numbers looks set to become yet another of their broken promises.

"They are letting down victims of crime and our communities right across Buckingham, Winslow and surrounding villages.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are putting more police on our streets to keep our communities safe and the government is on track to deliver its commitment to recruit 20,000 additional officers by March 2023.

"Over 11,000 additional officers are already recruited across England and Wales.

“As of December 31 2021, Thames Valley police has recruited 229 additional officers, which is over half of their allocation.

"Our Beating Crime Plan will give the police the powers and tools they need to stop crimes happening in the first place and keep serious offenders in prison for longer.”

A Thames Valley Police spokesperson said: “The National Police Uplift Programme presents a fantastic opportunity to increase the number of police officers across the Thames Valley.

"It will see us recruit an additional 598 officers by March 2023 who will significantly enhance our ability to prevent harm, investigate crime, support victims, bring offenders to justice and make our communities safer.

“Thames Valley Police continues to attract a high number of applicants looking to serve their communities as police officers and to date we have recruited 229 officers towards our Uplift target, achieving higher levels of diversity than at any previous time, with 14.2 per cent of all new officers in the past twelve months coming from ethnically diverse backgrounds and in the same period 49.8 per cent of our new recruits have been female.

“As we emerge from the pandemic, the recruitment market nationally is buoyant and therefore challenging from a recruiter's perspective.

"We are working hard to attract sufficient recruits to meet our 2021/22 targets and currently have over 1,650 applicants at various stages of the recruitment process.

"However, we need to carefully forecast and monitor turnover as well as recruitment success in order to maintain our progress towards achieving this target.

“We are confident that we have robust plans in place to take full advantage of the opportunities provided by the Police Uplift Programme.”