Baroness Smith of Basildon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Smith of Basildon on 2016-04-22.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many dedicated road traffic officers there were in each of the past five years in (1) Essex, (2) Kent, (3) Sussex, and (4) London.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The number of full time equivalent police officers employed in traffic policing roles as at 31 March in each of the last 5 years is provided in the tables. Officers with multiple responsibilities are recorded under their primary function or role. Data for 31 March 2015 (the latest period for which figures are available) can also be found in the supplementary tables of the July 2015 police workforce statistics publication:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/444537/police-workforce-supptabs-mar15.ods
As HM Inspectorate of Constabulary has made clear, there is no simple link between police numbers and crime levels, between numbers and the visibility of police in the community, or between numbers and the quality of service provided.
Decisions on the size and composition of the police workforce are operational matters for Chief Officers working with their Police and Crime Commissioners and taking into account local priorities. What matters is how officers are deployed, not how many of them there are.
