Policing and the numbers that were misunderstood
Somerset Confidential® looks at Police numbers in Avon & Somerset and finds some important numbers have been overlooked. Ones that go to the heart of changes in Policing in our county.
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Policing and the numbers that were misunderstood
Putting more police on our streets is usually a vote winner. So there was little surprise to hear a lot of chatter at the end of the month around the fact that there would now be record numbers of Police Officers in the Avon & Somerset force.
However many commentators pointed out that the number of Police Officers plummeted from 2011 to 2018 in Avon & Somerset. As indeed they did in the rest of the country. Under the austerity measures imposed by the LibDem and Conservative coalition government funding was cut and front line officer numbers appeared to fall in line with the cuts.
As a result much of the recruitment over the past two years appears to be simply putting things back to where they were in 2011.
there are now 3,330 Police Officer in Avon & Somerset today
To put numbers on that, there were 3,274 Police officers in Avon & Somerset 2011. That number fell to 2,687 Police Officers by 2018 followed by a slow recovery in each year thereafter. With the announcement that there are now 3,330 Police Officer in Avon & Somerset today, finally the numbers have once again overtaken those of 2011. The number of PCSOs has similarly fallen and risen so it is pretty much back to where it was in 2011.
Even the fact that numbers are at last rising has attracted criticism. Chief Constable Sarah Crew told the Accountability Board back in March that 1,500 of the 3,330 currently in the force had joined since the Government launched its police uplift programme in 2019.