The number of police officers in England and Wales has fallen to its lowest level for a decade, official figures show.
There were 135,838 police officers in September 2011 - 6,012 fewer than the 141,850 there had been a year earlier.
Only one of the 43 forces, Surrey Police, increased police officer numbers over that period.
Police civilian staff numbers in September 2011 stood at 69,407, down 8,820 or 11.3% over the 12 months.
But the number of special constables, who are volunteers, went up by more than 2,500 (15.5%) to 19,366.
The figures show the number of officers fell by more than 3,000 from last March alone.
The biggest percentage reduction in officers was in Derbyshire, which saw a 7.5% fall - 156 officers - followed by Nottinghamshire, which fell by 6.9% - 165 officers - and Devon and Cornwall, which fell by 6.1% or 213 officers.
No comments:
Post a Comment