At the election Boris pledged 20,000 extra Police. But there was a catch. Not immediately. So two and a half years after the election we have got 10,000 to replace the 20,000+ cut since 2010.
// The population of England and Wales is estimated to have gone up by around 3.5 million people since 2010. //
So if officer numbers returned to the exact levels they reached in 2010, there would still be fewer per head of population.
// Other parts of the service like police staff, PCSOs and special constables have also seen their numbers fall significantly since 2010.
The total police workforce – including officers and all those other categories of people – has actually fallen from 245,000 in March 2010 to just over 202,000 in March 2019 – a fall of more than 40,000 people. //
So if we hired 20,000 more police officers but no other members of the police family, total police workforce numbers would still be considerably down on 2010.