Over 11,000 police officers hired including more for Norfolk with more women recruits than ever before

More than half of the promised 20,000 additional police officers have now been recruited with an increasing number of women signing up to join forces across England and Wales.

An extra 11,053 officers have been hired across England and Wales as part of the Police Uplift Programme to help bring crime down and keep neighbourhoods safer, meaning that the government is now 55% of the way to meeting its recruitment target of 20,000 additional officers by March 2023.

Forces saw more women joining the ranks to tackle criminals and protect the public from harm between July and September 2021 – with female officers accounting for 45% (1,451) of all new joiners during that time.

Over the last year eight forces (Derbyshire, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, Sussex, Thames Valley, Kent and Suffolk) have hired more women than men. This means more officers on the streets bringing down drugs gangs, bearing down on violent crime and tackling anti-social behaviour.

There are also more Black, Asian and minority ethnic officers employed across forces than at any other time in the country’s history, now making up 7.9% (10,690) of all officers.

The additional officers have enabled some forces to put more focus on tackling specific crimes, for example:

• Avon and Somerset Police has set up Operation Bluestone - a transformative programme which has seen police professionals work alongside leading UK academics to change the police response to rape and sexual assault.

• The Metropolitan Police Service has created violence suppression units and predatory offender units to drive down all forms of violent crime, including domestic abuse and violence against women and girls. The Met is also currently creating new town centre teams, to increase their presence in busy neighbourhoods and town centres.

• Lancashire Police is funding a number of missing from home community safety officers who will work to reduce the number of times children go missing, including those at risk of exploitation, with the aim of keeping the county’s most vulnerable young people safe.