POLICE and Crime Commissioner John Dwyer has welcomed news that Cheshire Constabulary has hired an additional 322 officers through the police uplift programme, exceeding its recruitment target.
The Constabulary now has more officers than it has ever had, and the impact is being felt through improved incident response times and increased arrest and charge rates.
The extra officers will also bolster the Constabulary’s 122 community policing model, where each of Cheshire’s community areas is assigned its own dedicated police team.
Mr Dwyer, said: “I promised in my Police and Crime Plan that to improve public confidence in policing I would support the Constabulary in reaching its largest ever number of officers. That promise has been delivered, and now I’m committed to working with the Chief Constable to see how we can go even further.
“People in Cheshire expect the police to be contactable, responsive, and proactive in tackling crime. That’s exactly what is happening, and thanks to our new recruits we’re able to double down on our efforts to make Cheshire even safer.”
Recent figures from Cheshire Constabulary show that the number of arrests made from January to March 2023 was 18% higher than during the same months last year, with the overall ‘action taken’ rate for crime up by 11% across the same time period. And in an emergency where every second counts, figures showed that the average time taken to attend an emergency fell by 49 seconds.
To find out more about your local policing team, go to: www.cheshire.police.uk/area/your-area/
1 Comment
The government claims it has reached its target of recruiting 20,000 more police officers in England and Wales.
This is correct, based on the increase between 2019 and March 2023. But the rise follows a fall in the number of police officers in the years prior to 2017, and there are currently only around 3,500 more officers than in 2010.
Does this apply to PCC Dwyer’s statement?