Wednesday, 2 October 2013

For the first time in 3 years Bedfordshire Police are recruiting for new officers. The recruitment drive comes after a higher amount of staff than expected left during the spending cuts.

80 new regular officers will arrive over the course of the next 12 months which will include transferees from other forces as well as brand new officers who will be trained in Bedfordshire.

Earlier this year Bedfordshire opened recruiting to new Special Constables and a batch new PCSOs will be hitting the streets in two weeks’ time, after completing their training course.

The force's Chief Constable, Colette Paul, said: “I’m keen to recruit people as soon as we can, as our frontline resources are particularly stretched after a long period of recruitment freeze.

“We’ve planned in this recruitment drive by making savings elsewhere.

“I know Bedfordshire residents and our partners will be as pleased as I am that we are going to have such a significant upturn in frontline strength to help those hard working officers who are out there serving the public already. I’m particularly keen to recruit local people, with local knowledge and from our diverse range of backgrounds and cultures – policing is a wonderful career with great prospects.

The cuts in 2010 meant that the number of officers fell from 1,248 to 1,092 over the years. The new recruitment drive will put the number of police officers up to around 1,140. However, the continued budget pressures would see this figure stand at around 1,050 after two years.

Police and Crime Commissioner Olly Martins added: “Government funding cuts mean that sadly overall police strength in the county will still have to fall in the next couple of years. However, I am glad that we have reached a point where we can afford to rebalance the force and ease the burden on our overstretched frontline officers by starting to recruit again