The Police
Federation’s election call for an extra 12,000 officers across the UK to
prevent a surge in crime could be impossible to meet, according to HR
professionals in the force.
The
federation used its annual conference last week to demand an increase in police
numbers to 140,000 by 2004 – a 10 per cent rise on the Government’s target of
128,000 officers by 2002.
Police
Federation chairman Fred Broughton cited research in New York, which shows that
a 42 per cent increase in the number of officers has led to a 54 per cent fall
in offences, and urged the next government to rethink police recruitment
targets.
Martin
West, head of training and staff development for Surrey Police, believes recruiting
the extra 12,000 officers the federation has called for would be extremely
difficult and would not guarantee results.
He
said, "Our greatest concern as far as the forces in the South East are
concerned is being able to recruit the number of officers we need to maintain
the current establishment.
"It
is difficult to incentivise people to work in this part of the world on a
police constable’s starting salary.
"Also,
it is not as simple as saying you need X number of officers and crime will go
down by so much," he said.
Christine
Barton, head of HR and training for Cheshire Constabulary, said, "We are
already part of a massive government drive to recruit 9,000 extra officers. Any
increase on top of this in that sort of timescale would be very difficult."
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If
an extra 12,000 officers were to be recruited by 2004, then national police
training would have to be expanded dramatically, said Inspector Carl Langley,
head of recruitment for Devon and Cornwall Constabulary.
By
Ben Willmott
