London'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.

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 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.

On 31 March 2024, 91.6% of police officers were White, and 8.4% were from Asian, Black, Mixed, and Other ethnic backgrounds.

There 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.

Police recorded crime figures by Police Force Area and Community Safety Partnership areas (which equate in the majority of instances, to local authorities).

In England and Wales in 2025, there were ********police constables, the starting rank for police officers in England and Wales, with higher ranks having progressively fewer personnel.

There were 35,310 police officers in London in 2024, the most of any region of England and Wales. In the same year, North East England had 6,724 officers, the fewest of any region.

The police workforce of the United Kingdom has fluctuated significantly recently, reaching a peak of ******* workers in the third quarter of 2009, before falling to ******* workers by 2017. There has been a recent uptick in the number of people working for the police since 2017, with the police workforce in the most recent quarter reaching *******.

Numbers 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, click here and here

This file contains the names and codes for police force areas in the United Kingdom as at 31st December 2024. (File Size - 16 KB) Field Names - PFA24CD, PFA24NMField Types - Text, TextField Lengths - 9, 19

Domestic abuse numbers, prevalence and types, by region and police force area, using annual data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales, police recorded crime and a number of different organisations.

In 2023/24, the Metropolitan Police in London performed 137,055 stop and searches, by far the most of any police force in England and Wales. Merseyside Police, the police force responsible for the city of Liverpool, performed 50,456 stop and searches in this year, the second-highest in England and Wales.

The Crime and Policing Comparator allows you to compare data on recorded crime and anti-social behaviour (ASB), quality of service, finances and workforce numbers for all police forces in England and Wales.

Use of force is a sometimes necessary, yet often controversial, police power. Attempts to understand and explore police use of force have often been hampered by a lack of data, both nationally and internationally, with much research reliant on a very small number of datasets, often in the United States of America. This new data, collected by police forces in England and Wales and collated and published by the Home Office, represents an exciting new resource. According to the Home Office, 'these statistics cover incidents where police officers have used force and includes: the tactics used, the reason for force, the outcome, any injuries (to the officers and or the subject) and subject information (age, gender, ethnicity and disability, as perceived by the reporting officer). From April 2017, all police forces in the UK have been required to record this data. The use of force data collection is intended to hold police forces to account and to provide the public with greater information on the different types of force used and the context in which this occurs' https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-use-of-force-statistics.