LETTER: How many extra officers?

Here we go again, yet another article in the press about Sussex Police recruiting an additional 200 officers a year for the next four years. (Herald, March 29).
By The Newsroom
Published 5th Apr 2018, 16:35 BST
Updated 8th Jun 2018, 03:57 BST
Sussex Police. SUS-170310-110513001Sussex Police. SUS-170310-110513001
Sussex Police. SUS-170310-110513001

It is not the case that our county will be getting an extra 800 police officers over the next four years because Sussex Police is no different to any other employer in that, whilst new employees are joining, others are leaving.

According to the Institute of Fiscal Studies seven out of every hundred officers leave each year, for one reason or another. This will result, in the case of Sussex Police, which has 2,500 front-line officers, in 175 officers ending their police careers each year at the same time as Mrs Bourne’s newly recruited 200 are just beginning theirs.

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In other words, it is not the case of 200 extra officers each year but just 25.

Mrs Bourne said recently that she wants to provide us with a reassuring police presence. I would not have thought that just 25 extra officers, spread over Sussex’s nearly 1,500 square miles, will provide anything like reassurance to the people of our county.

Eric Waters

Ingleside Crescent, Lancing Read more letters from this week’s Herald and Gazette

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Related topics:Sussex PoliceBourneLancing