Number of police officers in the UK 2003-2024
In 2024, there were approximately 170,500 police officers in the United Kingdom, compared with around 155,000 in 2003. After reaching a high of 172,000 officers in 2010, the number of police officers in the UK fell to just 150,000 officers by 2017. Although that trend has reversed since this point, there are still approximately 1,000 fewer police officers in 2023 than there were in 2010.
Why did police numbers fall?
The fall in police numbers can be linked to a reduction in government spending on the police. In the aftermath of the 2008 recession, the coalition government of 2010 carried out a policy of austerity, vowing to cut government spending across the board. For the police service expenditure fell sharply, from 19.3 billion British pounds a year in 2009/10 to just 16.35 billion pounds in 2013/14, leading to cuts in personnel. Police service expenditure remained below 17 billion pounds a year until spending started to increase in 2017/18, with the most recent figure of 25.29 billion pounds for the 2022/23 year even higher than 2009/10.
Rising crime from the mid-2010s
Between 2002 and 2014, crime rates fell across all four jurisdictions of the UK, with the sharpest declines occurring in England and Wales, and Scotland. The falling crime rates seen during this period went into reverse from that year onwards, however, with the crime rate for England and Wales jumping from 62 crimes per 1,000 people to 89.5 by 2019/20. Although some crimes such as theft stayed at relatively low levels, the number of violent crimes has seen a sharp increase recently, rising from 634,600 offences in 2013/14 to over 2.1 million in 2022/23, for England and Wales.
