South Yorkshire Police recruits 800 new police officers as part of nationwide boost

South Yorkshire Police’s Chief Constable Lauren Poultney has said that her force is ‘on track’ to meet the Government’s recruitment goals for new police officers by 2023.
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Responding to Home Office figures published on Wednesday, the Chief Constable said: “South Yorkshire Police continues to be in a strong position with regards to recruitment of student police officers.

“We have made a promising start to the new financial year, and we remain on track to meet our year end targets for both the national uplift, and our own force uplift, as well as welcoming additional officers from the Police Now and Detective Now schemes.

“Since April 2019, we have seen 763 new officers join the force, consisting of 690 new recruits and 73 transferees, supplemented by 58 returners, all of whom are in various stages throughout their training. At present, some 510 of the new recruits have been out working in our districts as part of their on the job learning.

Chief Constable Lauren PoultneyChief Constable Lauren Poultney
Chief Constable Lauren Poultney
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“We are currently recruiting for police officers, and we expect to receive a large number of applications during this live period. In our last live application period in September 2020, we exceeded our headcount target for 2020/21 by 119 officers.

“This is an exciting time for the force, and I would encourage anyone interested in becoming a police officer to visit our website - www.southyorks.police.uk/bethefuture - to find out more information on the role, and to apply online.

“South Yorkshire Police is strongly committed to reflecting the communities we serve, and as such we warmly welcome applicants from all cultures and backgrounds to join us and complement our existing service.”

A manifesto commitment of the current government was a pledge to recruit an additional 20,000 police officers in England and Wales by March 31, 2023.

In England and Wales, 9,814 of these new officers have been recruited so far using funding from the ‘Police Uplift Programme’.

The Home Office added that a further 326 additional officers had been recruited through other funding streams, such as from local council tax precepts.

The current headcount of officers in England and Wales stood at 138,574 officers on June 30, 2021.

This year, the council tax in Sheffield rose to accommodate the expanding police force. The rise meant a £15 per year increase for a Band D property.