Shropshire Star comment: Will extra police officers actually make a difference to our county?
An extra 100 officers being taken on by West Mercia Police will not mean that here in Shropshire we will suddenly start to see lots of bobbies on the beat, that semi-mythical measure of effective community policing in the public's eye.
As a figure it sounds reasonable, but when you spread it across this county and Hereford and Worcester, and factor in the lead-in period, the training and then, when they are finally in place, the days off, there is going to be no difference at all for a considerable time and these additional officers are not likely to make a difference that the public will notice.
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If, however, instead of recruiting an extra 100 police officers, West Mercia had not lost 100 officers and more in the past year, with numbers falling from 2,071 to 1,930, then there would have been no need for all that lead-in, training and so on, with associated time and expense, and West Mercia would be benefitting from those officers now, and they would be experienced to boot.
Nevertheless, we must try not to be churlish. This is some welcome good news on the policing front.
Having numbers going down and then up again, perhaps even to what they were in the first place, has to be better than numbers going down and then down even further.
