Plans have been announced by the Conservatives to recruit a further 8,000 police officers, each dedicated to a local community. The plans build on the recruitment of 20,000 additional officers, as promised in 2019.
Each new officer will have the full power of arrest and be the named officer for their local area, helping to build relations, contact and confidence with the community. The move will be paid for by removing the student discount to the Immigration Health Surcharge and by increasing all visa fees by 25 per cent.
Conservative Candidate for Sefton Central, Marcus Bleasdale, said:
"Since 2019, we have recruited 20,000 new police officers, but there is more to do to improve local policing. And, while crime is down overall, I know from listening to local councillors and residents that crime is a real worry for many people and there are hot spot areas in the borough that need extra attention.
"That is why we are committing to every ward in England and Wales having a new police officer – recruiting an additional 8,000 police officers by 2028. So from Bootle to Meols, and everywhere in between, people in Sefton will have a named police officer to contact in their community."
Our new officers will be focused on their local neighbourhoods which, in addition to our hotspot policing programme, will help to make communities safer. Labour’s pledge of more police officers is unfunded and will only recruit 3,000 extra officers with the full power of arrest.
The Conservatives will deliver the extra resources our police need by:
- Recruiting 8,000 new fully warranted police officers as part of a new neighbourhood policing uplift programme. We will build on the success of our Police Uplift Programme that has delivered 20,000 more police since 2019 by recruiting an additional 8,000 police officers with the full power of arrest – that means an additional police officer for every ward in England and Wales.
- Ensuring that these new officers are focused on their local neighbourhoods. These officers will work as part of existing neighbourhood teams, which will ensure every neighbourhood will have a genuine and more continuous police officer coverage. We will also require forces not to offset these additional officers by diverting a police officers, already dedicated to neighbourhood duties, to other purposes.
- Rolling out Hotspot Policing to all police forces to cut anti-social behaviour. We will roll out our successful hotspot policing programme across the whole of England and Wales over the next Parliament. This will ensure that an additional 3 to 4.5 million hours of patrolling can take place in hundreds of hotspots, proving further protection against anti-social behaviour and serious violence. Anti-social behaviour is also down by nearly 50 percent in some hotspot areas
