PCSOs are 'promoted so police can hit target of 20,000 extra officers' trends now
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Ministers are on course to miss their manifesto pledge of recruiting an extra 20,000 police officers, analysis shows.
It comes amid claims that police chiefs are 'fiddling' the numbers by raiding the PCSO workforce, promoting them to full-time officers in a race to reach the target.
An extra 16,753 officers had been recruited by the end of last year after the Government made the 20,000 pledge in 2019. The deadline for hitting it was last Friday.
It means an extra 1,082 or so new officers were needed a month in the first quarter of this year to hit the target.
However, analysis shows that in the final quarter of last year, just 473 officers were recruited on average per month.
Ministers are on course to miss their manifesto pledge of recruiting an extra 20,000 police officers, analysis shows
Only 11 of 43 forces across England and Wales are projected to meet their targets, based on the current monthly average of new officers recruited.
