The total number of officers across the 43 forces in England and Wales fell by 1,303 between March 2024 and March 2025, according to data released by the Home Office.
Essex Police has said the cost of deploying officers to unrest in Epping outside a hotel hosting asylum seekers has already cost £100,000.
The Met, the country’s largest force, accounts for the majority of the overall decline, having lost more than 1,000 officers since last year.
But today’s figures show only 150 Met officers were sacked in the past year, compared to more than 1,085 who voluntarily resigned.
The Police Federation described the resignations as “a clear warning sign” of a service that is under “immense and growing strain”.
The fall in officer numbers comes amid concerns of further rioting this summer (Photo: Lab Ky Mo/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)“Officers on the frontline feel like they are seen as being replaceable,” he told The i Paper.
“At the same time, there is simply too much demand and officers aren’t happy about their pay and pensions.”
A spokesperson for the Police Federation of England and Wales said police pay has fallen by 23 per cent in real terms since 2010 with “frustration and anxiety deepening”.
Former prime minister Boris Johnson pledged to recruit a further 20,000 police officers when the Conservatives won the election in 2019 but faced repeated challenges of new recruits quitting shortly after they joined.
The Government has pledged to recruit a further 13,000 neighbourhood officers by the end of the current Parliament which will be made up of 3,000 new recruits, 3,000 existing officers who will be redeployed to neighbourhood teams, 4,000 newly recruited PCSOs and finally 3,000 additional volunteer special constables.
Some forces have been hit harder than others – in Norfolk the number of special constables has fallen from 145 to 101.
“Then they’ve got to double that to and meet their target for neighbourhood policing. These are volunteers – there’s no financial incentive.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves 10 Downing Street ahead of the Liaison Committee session (Photo: Adrian DENNIS / AFP)
He added: “Johnson’s government was clever – they chose a target at a time when police numbers were at a historic low, the only way was up.
Reacting to the figures, the Conservatives said the falling police numbers were a “devastating blow” to neighbourhoods dealing with rising crime and anti-social behaviour.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: “Labour has let down policing and has let down the public.
“Labour has massively increased our taxes, squandered the money, and now they’re reducing police numbers. The public are less safe as a result of Labour’s incompetence.”
The spokesperson added: “Officer numbers have been stable since last July despite falling between March and June 2024, however, the promising increase in neighbourhood policing shows that we are finally seeing more officers on our streets”.
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