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.

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.

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).

Statistics on police workforce numbers in the 43 police forces in England and Wales and the British Transport Police. Source agency: Home Office Designation: National Statistics Language: English Alternative title: Police Workforce, England and Wales

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.

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 at *******.

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, here

There were 34,285 police officers in London in 2025, the most of any region of England and Wales. In the same year, North East England had 6,725 officers, the fewest of any region.

There 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.

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.

There were 7,315 police community support officers (PCSOs) in England and Wales in 2025, a decline on the previous year when there were 7,568 PCSOs. During the provided time period, the number of community police officers in England and Wales peaked in 2010, when there were 16,918.

UK crime stats and police numbers, by constabulary.

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.

Numbers of recorded offences, and rates of offences per thousand population, by broad crime grouping, by financial year and borough. Rate is given as per thousand population, and are calculated using mid-year population from the first part of the financial year eg For Financial year 2008-09, mid-year estimates for 2008 are used. Offences: These are confirmed reports of crimes being committed. All data relates to "notifiable offences" - which are designated categories of crimes that all police forces in England and Wales are required to report to the Home Office Crime rates are not available for Heathrow due to no population figures There were changes to the police recorded crime classifications from April 2012. Therefore caution should be used when comparing sub-groups of crime figures from 2012/13 with earlier years. Action Fraud have taken over the recording of fraud offences on behalf of individual police forces. This process began in April 2011 and was rolled out to all police forces by March 2013. Due to this change caution should be applied when comparing data over this transitional period and with earlier years. Link to data on Met Police website. Crime stats on ONS website

As of 2025, **** percent of police constables in England and Wales were males, compared with **** percent who were female. Higher up in the police ranks, the share of females is lower, with ** percent of police sergeants and **** percent of inspectors being men. The highest rank of Chief Officer has a distribution of **** percent male Chief Officers and **** percent female Chief Officers.

Calculated by ESRI UK by aggregating single crime case data. The data is collated from all police forces so data availability can fluctuate by area. The data shown reflects the current data supplied. If data looks unexpectedly low for an area please check https://data.police.uk/changelog/. Some areas where there has been an issue with a data return show as unusually low. In order to return figures for larger areas the data available is aggregated - this does mean that the numbers and rates will often be lower than if full data was available.Rates are presented as rate per thousand total population in the area. Populations are derived from the ONS population estimates at LSOA level and aggregated to the different geographical levels in line with the aggregation of the crime data.

In 2025, approximately *** percent of police officers in England and Wales were from ethnic minority backgrounds, compared with *** percent in 2024, and just *** percent in 2005.