New intake bolsters number of police officers to 10-year high

Humberside Police has its highest number of officers in 10 years after its latest recruits were sworn in.

The force held the traditional attestation ceremony for the latest intake of 50 student officers at the Police Training Centre, in north Hull, this week.

It brings the total number of police officers to 2,074.

Welcoming the recruitment landmark after the socially distanced ceremony, Chief Constable Lee Freeman said: “We’re delighted to welcome yet another new intake of officers into the force. 

“Since 2017 we have recruited, trained and deployed over 800 new officers. This has allowed us to replace those retiring as well as provide additional new officer posts, and we will be recruiting more officers next year with our portion of the national police officer recruitment programme.

“When I took over as Chief Constable in 2017 we had reduced our officer number to 1,550 because of austerity cuts but it feels like a very different picture now and the additional officers have been well received by our communities in Hull, East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire.  

“During my time as Chief our communities have consistently told us they wanted to see more officers on the beat, they wanted their calls answering more quickly, they wanted to see local stations re-opening and they wanted us to investigate - and solve - more crimes. The extra officers are helping us to achieve this.”

The new student officers will now complete a 17-week intensive training programme, where they will learn all aspects of police powers, legislation, how to respond to incidents and investigate crime.  They will also learn how to deal with victims, witnesses and suspects, as well first aid and officer safety training.

After this initial training period is completed, all 50 will hit the streets of Hull, East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire for 10 weeks, accompanied by a tutor constable.