Public warned it could take two years for impact of 750 new cops to be felt in South Yorkshire

A warning has been issued that it could take two years before the impact of 750 new police officers in South Yorkshire is felt.
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South Yorkshire Police is in the middle of a recruitment drive as part of a national scheme to boost the frontline by 20,000 over the next few years.

The South Yorkshire branch of the Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, said the plan is for 750 new recruits to be in place in the county by next year.

But chairman Steve Kent said until the new officers are fully trained and operational it could be another two years before their impact is fully felt.

South Yorkshire's Police Federation chairman, Steve KentSouth Yorkshire's Police Federation chairman, Steve Kent
South Yorkshire's Police Federation chairman, Steve Kent

“I think the public needs to be informed of the fact that just because 750 cops will have landed by 2022, it doesn’t mean we’ve got 750 pairs of boots on the ground.,” he said.

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"They’re probably going to take anything from six moths to two years to be fully operational and that’s when we will really feel the benefit of those numbers being out there and shifts will have the pressure eased off them.

“Officers will then drip into the CID departments and traffic departments and such. It’s only repairing the damage that’s been done over the past 10 years. The 750 uplift will only get us to just about where we were 10 years ago, probably not even that.

“What we need to see past that is continued investment, and we need to see a slow steady continuation of officers coming in so we can actually grow as a force.”

He added: “Officers have been working at absolute full steam with pretty much the least resources in the country for so long now. It will be really welcome that maybe in a year to two years’ time the landscape will be totally different in our force.

“We need to grow and what I would like to see is us eventually growing beyond the 3,500 mark which has always been the upper limit of South Yorkshire Police. If we can go past that, then we’re in a totally different place. Things hopefully will be a lot better.”

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