NEWS
• A retentionfirst strategy: Targets should be set not only for recruitment
• Wellbeing and trauma support as core business: Immediate investment in mentalhealth services, trauma counselling and meaningful timeout policies will reduce sickness and early exits.
• Rebalance neighbourhood policing: Protect and rebuild neighbourhood
• Longterm funding certainty: Forces need multiyear settlements to plan
teams so community intelligence and prevention are not sacrificed to reactive demand.
• A national workforce plan codesigned with unions and chiefs: The NPCC’s frameworks point to the components of such a plan; ministers must move from consultation to delivery.
training, specialist units and retention programmes; stopstart funding cycles are corrosive.
THE POLITICAL TEST Policing is a visible public service: when it falters, communities notice. The Government faces a simple test of competence – can it stop the haemorrhage of officers and restore a stable, capable service? So far, the answer is no. The Government has the levers: funding, pay negotiation, legislative support for new policing models and the political will to prioritise longterm resilience over shortterm optics. The workforce statistics are a scoreboard; they will not improve without decisive action.
colleagues faster than we can replace them. That isn’t just a workforce problem, it’s a public-safety problem. The Government must stop treating policing as a short-term political fix and commit to long-term investment to ensure we are able to provide the service that communities want and need,” said PFEW National Chair Tiff Lynch. Mukund Krishna, CEO of the Police
Federation, added: “When an officer leaves, the service does not just lose a number. It loses years of experience, local knowledge and specialist capability that cannot be replaced overnight. As our Copped Enough campaign makes clear, headline recruitment targets are not enough. Policing needs a coherent national plan that prioritises retention, wellbeing and skills, otherwise churn will continue to weaken frontline capability
14 | POLICE | FEBRUARY | 2026
and public confidence.” These statements reflect a wider
consensus across representative bodies and chief officers: the crisis is structural and requires a joinedup response that goes beyond slogans.
THE SPECIAL CONSTABULARY AND VOLUNTEERS: A FRAGILE BULWARK Volunteers in policing, particularly special constables, are increasingly relied upon to plug gaps. Their civic commitment is invaluable, but volunteers cannot be a substitute for a properly resourced, professional police service. Overreliance on unpaid labour risks normalising a twotier response to crime and undermines the sustainability of neighbourhood policing.
WHAT MUST CHANGE: A PRACTICAL AGENDA
A PLEA FROM THE FRONTLINE Policing is not merely a set of statistics; it is people – officers, staff, volunteers and the communities they serve. The workforce numbers published for September 2025 are an alarming sign that if the Government continues to treat the problem as a cyclical headline rather than a structural emergency, the consequences will be felt in every town and city: slower responses, fewer investigations, and communities left to cope with the fallout. The dynamics that officers, special
constables and staff bring to policing must be supported, not relied upon as a cheap fix. The choice facing the Government is clear: act now to stabilise and rebuild the service, or preside over a slow decline that will be far costlier in human and social terms.
but for reducing leaver rates, improving career pathways and restoring pay competitiveness.
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