Police workforce, England and Wales, 30 September 2014
Published 29 January 2015
Applies to England and Wales
© Crown copyright 2015
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1. Introduction
This release contains statistics on the numbers of police officers, police staff, police community support officers (PCSOs), designated officers, traffic wardens and special constables in post on 30 September 2014 in the 43 police forces of England and Wales and the British Transport Police.
The workforce figures in this release are all provided on a full-time equivalent (FTE) basis unless indicated otherwise.
This release is a mid-year update of the annual ‘Police workforce, England and Wales, 31 March 2014’ publication.
See the ‘User Guide to Police Workforce Statistics’ for further information, including a glossary, conventions used and other background information. The data in this release can be found in the ‘Police Workforce, England and Wales, 30 September 2014: data tables’.
2. Key facts
There were 127,075 police officers in the 43 police forces (of England and Wales) on 30 September 2014, the lowest number since September 2001 (see Table 6). In addition, there were 2,912 police officers employed by the British Transport Police and 434 police officers seconded to central services.
The number of police officers in the 43 forces decreased by 1,295 or 1.0% compared to a year earlier, and decreased by 834 or 0.7% compared to 6 months earlier. Of the 43 forces, 30 recorded falls compared to a year earlier, and 34 recorded falls compared to 6 months earlier.
Figure 1 shows that police officer numbers have fallen for each of the last five years, with a smaller fall in each of the last three successive years.
Figure 1: Change in the number of police officers1, as at 30 September 2005 to 2014, compared to a year earlier, England and Wales
Chart notes
- Based on full-time equivalent figures for the 43 forces of England and Wales only.
Source: Home Office, ‘Police workforce, England and Wales, 30 September 2014: data tables’.
There were 63,678 police staff in the 43 police forces on 30 September 2014, a fall of 1,023 or 1.6% compared to a year earlier, and a fall of 419 or 0.7% compared to 6 months earlier. The police staff figures exclude staff contracted out to private companies (see section 6 of the user guide for an explanation of how contracting out may influence these figures).
There were 12,768 PCSOs in the 43 police forces on 30 September 2014, a decrease of 785 or 5.8% compared to a year earlier, and a decrease of 298 or 2.3% compared to 6 months earlier.
There were 4,304 designated officers (i.e. investigation officers, detention officers and escort officers; including contracted out staff) in the 43 police forces on 30 September 2014, a fall of 37 or 0.9% compared to a year earlier, but a rise of 31 or 0.7% compared to 6 months earlier.
There were 16,792 special constables (headcount) in the 43 police forces on 30 September 2014, a decrease of 1,318 or 7.3% compared to a year earlier, and a decrease of 997 or 5.6% compared to 6 months earlier.
There were 18 traffic wardens in the 43 police forces on 30 September 2014, the same number as the previous year, but a rise of 2 compared to 6 months earlier. Local authorities now employ almost all traffic wardens.