Rising crime has outpaced police recruitment which leaves officers today with higher workloads than when the Tories came to power, new analysis shows.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman boasted of a “record” number of police in England and Wales after the Government met its 2019 target to recruit 20,000 new officers by the end of March of this year.
But while there are around 3,500 more bobbies overall than in 2010 when David Cameron entered No10, 11 of the country’s 43 forces have seen officer numbers shrink since then.
And police working today have a much higher workload based on the latest recorded crime figures.
In 2022, there were a total of 5.4 million crimes of all types.
Spread across a headcount of nearly 150,000, that is the equivalent of 36 crimes per officer.
See how your police force compares using our searchable map below.
In 2010, police recorded 4.1 million offences, or 29 crimes for each of the 144,000 officers with the 43 regional forces in England and Wales at the time.
That is because the overall number of recorded crimes has shot up by 33%, while police officer numbers have only increased by 4%.
The Government insists that crime “excluding fraud and computer misuse” - which includes offences such as sending abusive emails and offensive social media posts - has fallen by 50% since 2010.
Ms Braverman has now told police that they “shouldn’t be getting involved” in rows over social media on gender or race, urging officers to stop “pandering to politically correct preoccupations” and focus on catching criminals.
Officers at some forces have seen their caseloads increase far higher than others.
You can see how your police force compares by searching this map:
In Cleveland - one of the 11 forces that have seen officer numbers fall since 2010 - the rate of crimes per officer has doubled, from 25 to 55.
That is the highest rate of crimes per officer of every police force in England and Wales.
It is followed by Hampshire (52 crimes per officer) and then South Yorkshire (51 crimes per officer) and West Yorkshire (50 crimes per officer).
While the Metropolitan Police Service is the busiest force in the country in terms of the number of crimes it deals with, it has the third lowest rate of crimes per officer (24), behind Devon and Cornwall Police (22) and City of London Police (seven), where the low crime rate may skew the figures.
That is in spite of the Met missing its target to recruit 4,500 new officers, the only force in England and Wales to fail to meet its allocation.
The Home Office has also recently announced changes to crime recording, which it says could free up “a potential 443,000 hours of police time a year”.
The Police Federation, however, which represents rank and file officers, says the recruitment drive has effectively “backfilled the more than 21,000 full-time equivalent officers cut by the government in 2010”.
National chair Steve Hartshorn said increases in the overall population and “rising attrition rates” mean “we would need closer to 50,000 new officers to cover these losses”.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “This is a historic moment for our country as we reach a new peak of around 150,000 police officers in England and Wales, more than ever before.
"We have delivered on the promise we made to the British people to recruit an additional 20,000 police officers, which means more police on the beat preventing violence, solving burglaries and cracking down on antisocial behaviour.
"Progress is being made, with crime falling in England and Wales by 50% since 2010, excluding fraud and computer misuse.
“Demand on the police has changed since 2010, and these new officers are changing the face of policing.
"They are more representative of the communities they serve, and this offers a unique chance to deliver the highest standards and common sense policing expected by the public."
