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2 POLICE OFFICER STRENGTH

(a)    As at 31 March 2007 there were 141,892 fuli-time equivalent (FTE) police officers in the 43 police forces of Engiand and Waies, of which 139,321 (headcount) were available for duty. This is an increase of 369 officers (FTE) or less than one per cent compared with 31 March 2006. An additional 2,555 officers represent the British Transport Police across Engiand and Waies, and a further 482 are seconded to Central Services.

(b)    Following the recommendations of the Police Number Task Force, a revised method of calculating police officer strength was adopted from March 2003 onwards. The police officer strength, calculated on the old basis and for comparison with figures prior to March 2003 (see text box on page 4), was 140,032 at 31 March 2007 (Table 1).

(c)    Twenty-three forces increased their total officer strength in the 12 months to 31 March 2007. The largest increases in percentage terms were in Suffolk (up 3.9 per cent or 51 officers), Merseyside (up 3.2 per cent or 139 officers) and Hampshire (up 2.3 per cent or 87 officers). The largest numerical increase was in the Metropolitan Police (up 0.6 per cent or 180 officers, Table 9).

(d)    There were 20 forces reporting falls in officer numbers over the 12 months to 31 March 2007. The largest decreases in percentage terms were in Cambridgeshire (down 3.2 per cent or 46 officers), Northamptonshire (down 2.7 per cent or 37 officers) and Nottinghamshire (down 2.7 per cent or 67 officers). For the majority of the other forces the decrease was no morę than one per cent.

(e)    There were increases in total officer strength in seven of the nine English Government Office Regions and in Waies in the 12 months to March 2007. The largest increase in percentage terms was in the West Midlands region (up 0.9 per cent or 131 officers, Table 9). The largest decrease was in the East Midlands region (down 1.5 per cent or 143 officers).

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