Facebook
TwitterThere were ****** police officers in London in 2024, a decline when compared with the previous year. The majority of police officers in London work for the Metropolitan Police service, which is responsible for policing most of the UK capital, with the City of London Police only responsible for policing the historical center of the city, an area the size of around one square mile.
Facebook
TwitterLondon's Metropolitan Police is by far the largest police force in the United Kingdom with 34,315 officers in 2024. At 16,356 officers, the Scottish police force has the second-largest force in terms of officer numbers, followed by Greater Manchester police force, which had 8,141 officers that year. Although the Metropolitan Police are responsible for policing most of Greater London, the City of London Police force covers the historic center of London, which is around one square mile in size, and numbered 995 officers in 2024. Crime in the UK In 2023/24 there were approximately 6.66 million crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales, compared with 6.74 million in 2022/23, which was the highest number of crimes recorded in a reporting year since 2002/03. Although crime declined from the mid-2000s to the mid-2010s, there has been a noticeable increase in crimes from 2014/15 onwards. In terms of the crime rate, England and Wales had the highest in the United Kingdom, at 89.7 offences per one thousand people, compared with 55 in Scotland, and 52.3 in Northern Ireland. Cuts to policing reversed in recent years Between 2010 and 2017, the number of police officers in the UK fell from 172,000 officers to just 150,000. During this same period, the London Metropolitan Police saw officer numbers decline by around 2,000 officers. The fall in police personnel was a result of UK-wide funding cuts, during this time period, with police expenditure falling from 19.3 billion in 2009/10 to 16.35 billion by 2013/14. This policy has since been reversed, with the last UK government recruiting officers and generally spending more on the police service. As of 2024, there were 170,500 police officers in the UK, and government expenditure on the police service was 27.3 billion British pounds.
Facebook
TwitterThese statistics cover police officers, police staff, designated officers, police community support officers, special constables and police support volunteers in the 43 police forces in England and Wales and the British Transport Police.
See the ‘Police workforce open data tables’ for historical data.
See the ‘User guide to police workforce statistics’ for further information, including a glossary, conventions used and other background information.
If you have any queries about this release, please email policingstatistics@homeoffice.gov.uk or write to:
Police Analysis Unit
2nd floor Peel Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF
The Home Office responsible statistician is Jodie Hargreaves.
Facebook
Twitter4In 2022, there were ****** frontline police officers working for the London Metropolitan Police compared with ****** in the previous year, and ****** in 2019, when the number of frontline police officers in London was the lowest in the provided time period.
Facebook
TwitterIn 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 27.3 billion pounds for the 2023/24 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. Since the mid-2010s, however, there has been a substantial increase in crime, especially in England and Wales, which saw its crime rate jump from 62 crimes per 1,000 people to 89.9 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.
Facebook
TwitterQuarterly update on progress with the recruitment of an additional 20,000 police officers in England and Wales.
Facebook
TwitterNumbers of police officers, police civilian staff, and Police Community Support Officers in the Metropolitan Police Force. Figures are reported by MOPAC to the GLA's Police and Crime Committee each month. The figures are full-time equivalent figures (FTE) in order to take account of part-time working, job sharing etc, and do not represent a measure of headcount. For more information, here
Facebook
TwitterData tables to complement ‘Police workforce, England and Wales: 31 March 2025’.
To view and use ‘ODS’ files, OS X users can http://www.openoffice.org/download/">download OpenOffice.
If you are experiencing difficulties opening these data tables please contact us at policingstatistics@homeoffice.gov.uk.
Facebook
TwitterOpen Government Licence 3.0http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
License information was derived automatically
Police recorded crime figures by Police Force Area and Community Safety Partnership areas (which equate in the majority of instances, to local authorities).
Facebook
TwitterThere were 147,746 police officers in England and Wales in 2024, the highest number of police officers during this provided time period. Between 2010 and 2018 the number of police officers in England and Wales fell from 143,734 to 122,405, with numbers increasing again from 2019 onwards.
Facebook
TwitterThese Experimental Statistics explore stop and search rates for the Metropolitan Police Service at borough level for the year ending March 2021. The analysis explores traditional resident based rates at borough level and compares these to rates using suspects of police recorded violent crime.
National statistics on stop and search and arrests for notifiable offences are available here:
Police powers and procedures: Stop and search and arrests, England and Wales, year ending 31 March 2021.
Facebook
TwitterCC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedicationhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
License information was derived automatically
FBI National Incident-Based Reporting System (FBI NIBRS) crime data for DC Metropolitan Police Department (City) in District of Columbia, including incidents, statistics, demographics, and detailed incident information.
Facebook
TwitterOpen Government Licence - Canada 2.0https://open.canada.ca/en/open-government-licence-canada
License information was derived automatically
This data set is no longer compiled by the Ministry of the Solicitor General. Data from the Police Administration Survey. Describes the police strength (number of police officers per 100,000 people) in Ontario's census metropolitan areas. These are areas with: * At least 100,000 total residents * At least 50,000 residents in the core Data is based on the number of police officers in 2012 and populations for 2011. The data can be accessed from Statistics Canada.
Facebook
TwitterCC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedicationhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
License information was derived automatically
FBI National Incident-Based Reporting System (FBI NIBRS) crime data for Mountain Bay Metropolitan Police Department (City) in Wisconsin, including incidents, statistics, demographics, and detailed incident information.
Facebook
TwitterCC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedicationhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
License information was derived automatically
FBI National Incident-Based Reporting System (FBI NIBRS) crime data for Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (City) in Nevada, including incidents, statistics, demographics, and detailed incident information.
Facebook
TwitterAs of 2020, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) had the highest number of police personnel in Japan, at close to **** thousand employees, including police officers, engineers, and administrative staff. The nationwide number of police personnel that year reached around ***** thousand people, including those employed at National Police Agency and Prefectural Police.
Facebook
TwitterOpen Government Licence 3.0http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
License information was derived automatically
Between April 2022 and March 2023, there were 24.5 stop and searches for every 1,000 black people in England and Wales. There were 5.9 for every 1,000 white people.
Facebook
TwitterOpen Government Licence 3.0http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
License information was derived automatically
Raw data on crime supplied by the Metropolitan Police Service and the Mayors Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC). Pan-London data includes: - Total Notifiable Offences - Total Victim-based crime (and Sanctioned Detection Rates) - Violence against the Person - Violence with injury (VWI) (and SDR) - Serious Youth Violence - Female victims of robbery & Violence with Injury - Rape - Knife Crime (and SDR) - Knife Crime with Injury - Gun Crime (and SDR) - Gun Crime with firearm discharged - Gang violence indicator - Dog Attacks (and SDR) - Homicide - Sexual Offences - Burglary (all) - Burglary (residential) - Robbery (all) - Theft & Handling - Theft from Person - Theft of Motor Vehicle - Theft from Motor Vehicle - Criminal Damage* - Domestic Offences - Homophobic Hate Victims - Racist & Religious Hate Victims - Faith Hate Victims - Disability Hate Victims - Stop & Search Totals (and related Arrest rate) - Police Strengths - Officer/Sergeant/Staff/Special Constable/PCSO - Satisfaction/Confidence in the Metropolitan Police Service (ease of contact/satisfaction with action taken/well-informed/fairly treated/overall satisfaction/overall confidence) NB. Quarterly data - Crime-related calls to Police by category - Anti-Social Behaviour-related calls to Police by category Borough data includes: - Fear of crime ("to what extent are you worried about crime in this area?") NB. Quarterly data NB. Action Fraud have taken over the recording of fraud offences nationally on behalf of individual police forces. This process began in April 2011 and was rolled out to all police forces by March 2013. Data for Greater London is available from Action Fraud here.
Facebook
TwitterOpen Government Licence 3.0http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
License information was derived automatically
This publication presents statistics on Police Officer Quarterly Strength, which give the number of full-time equivalent police officers employed by the eight Scottish police forces. Source agency: Scottish Government Designation: Official Statistics not designated as National Statistics Language: English Alternative title: Police Officer Quarterly Strength Statistics, Scotland
Facebook
TwitterThe Metropolitan Police in London arrested 96,426 people in 2023/24, by far the most of any police force in England and Wales. Greater Manchester Police made 47,611 arrests in this reporting year, the second-highest in England and Wales.
Facebook
TwitterThere were ****** police officers in London in 2024, a decline when compared with the previous year. The majority of police officers in London work for the Metropolitan Police service, which is responsible for policing most of the UK capital, with the City of London Police only responsible for policing the historical center of the city, an area the size of around one square mile.