Wiltshire 'on track' recruiting extra police officers

Wiltshire Police appears to be 'on track' to meet its target of recruiting 49 additional police officers by March 2021.

The new recruits are down to the Government's national campaign spending on an extra 20,000 police officers in three years.

Quarterly stats on police officer recruitment numbers issued by the Home Office this week (Thursday 29 October) show the five forces across the South West have already hired 397 additional police officers in the last 12 months. All forces in the region are on track to hit the regional target of 423 additional police officers funded by the national campaign by March next year, the end of the first full year of the three-year programme.

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In Wiltshire, the county's Force is taking on more police officers than ever before. The first 40 that are being funded by the national campaign started training back in June. They've been followed by another 20 last week. Between now and March 2021, they'll be joined by 60 more bringing a total of 120 student officers commencing training in a year.

While the total establishment figures need to take account of officers leaving and retiring, the Force remains on track to bring in the 49 additional officers allocated to Wiltshire through the additional Government funding by the end of the financial year.

The Government's national campaign is set to fund a total of 148 new officers in Wiltshire over the next three years - in addition to numbers already planned to replace leavers - bringing the expected number of serving officers to 1,150 by March 2024.

Angus Macpherson, Police and Crime Commissioner for Wiltshire and Swindon is pleased with the progress the Force is making to attract, recruit and train new officers, funded by the Policing Precept as well as the Government's national recruitment scheme:

"Last week I welcomed the latest 20 officers to Wiltshire, with more joining in the coming months. I am confident the Force will meet its recruitment targets. It is important to remember that all student officers must undergo 23 weeks of initial training, a mix of classroom and practical safety training, before they are deployed to community policing teams to continue their training and be seen on our streets."

"Diversity in policing is important, but there is no quick fix. It will take time to achieve the ambition of being a diverse and inclusive police service, truly representative of its communities, but I am certain that Wiltshire has the drive and commitment to achieve this."

Earlier this year the public supported an increase in the Precept, which allowed the recruitment of a further 16 frontline police officers this year.