Johnson launches police recruitment drive

New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced that the recruitment of 20,000 new police officers will begin within weeks.

Led by the Home Office, the move aims to start delivering more frontline officers from September, with full recruitment to be completed over the next three years. The government is expected to shortly set out plans for a new national policing board to support the recruitment drive.

The board will hold the police to account for meeting this target and drive the national response to the most pressing issues that affect communities right across the country.

The government is also likely to review the pilot which makes it simpler for officers to use stop and search powers, with a view to rolling this out across all forces. Johnson has been clear he fully supports the police’s use of stop and search to tackle and disrupt those carrying knives.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said: “Officers up and down the country put themselves in danger every day to keep us safe, they deserve our support. The rise we’ve seen in serious violence is deeply worrying. An additional 20,000 officers sends a clear message that we are committed to giving police the resources they need to tackle the scourge of crime. This is the start of a new relationship between the government and the police working even more closely together to protect the public.”