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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
National
Anahita Hossein-Pour

Number of police officers falls by more than 1,000 in a year, figures show

The Metropolitan Police reported a drop of nearly 1,500 full-time equivalent officers in the year to September 2025 (Alex Segre/Alamy) -

The number of police officers in England and Wales has dropped by more than 1,300 in 12 months and is now 2,000 below the peak reached in 2024, new figures show.

A total of 145,550 full-time equivalent (FTE) police officers were in post across the 43 territorial police forces at the end of September 2025, a drop of 1,318 (0.9%) on the previous year.

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