Hertfordshire exceeds police officer recruitment target

Hertfordshire Constabulary exceeded its police officer recruitment target under the national 20,000 officer recruitment drive.

A recent intake of student officers pushed our headcount to 2,415 officers, some 34 higher than our original 2,381 target. This is the most officers in the constabulary’s history. 

The pre-uplift baseline was 2,077 officers, with 304 extra officers allocated as part of the recruitment drive.

These figures are on top of the regular recruitment levels, which ordinarily cater for retirements and those leaving for other reasons.

In addition, we’ve seen an increase in the number of women and people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds serving as police officers.

Of the total of 719 new officers recruited in the past three years, 313, or 43.5 per cent, were women.

And 61 student officers, or 8.48 per cent, were from ethnic minority backgrounds.

The campaign to recruit 20,000 additional police officers nationally was launched in September 2019.

Chief Constable Charlie Hall said the new recruits had already had positive effects on policing across the county.

“I have taken great pleasure in personally welcoming as many of our new recruits to Hertfordshire as possible. It is good news for our constabulary and the people of Hertfordshire that we have exceeded our recruitment target and a testament to my team that so many officers want to work in our county.

“These extra officers are already contributing towards an enhanced policing service and I have been delighted to hear about the positive effect they have been having.

“We are reaching out to our diverse communities to encourage Black, Asian and ethnic minority people to consider a policing career as we still have work to do to ensure we truly reflect the communities we serve.

“Our focus now moves to maintaining the record number of officers we have and promoting the various routes open to those wanting to become a police officer. It is also a great opportunity to increase our diversity further and attract more talent into the force.”

He added: “Policing remains a great career, with much to offer, and the genuine opportunity to make a positive difference to people’s lives. You don’t need a degree to apply to become a police officer but one of our training routes – the degree apprenticeship – means you will achieve a degree by the end of your training, with no student fees to repay.

“We offer a traditional police officer training course, an apprenticeship degree scheme, graduate route and a detective programme.”

More on the various routes to becoming a police officer can be found on our website.