Police numbers up to record level

Police numbers are steadily rising

The number of police officers in England and Wales has exceeded 140,000 for the first time.

There were 140,135 police officers at the end of September last year, the Home Office said.

The record total did not include officers on career breaks or maternity leave, and also excluded the British Transport Police's 2,258 officers.

Yorkshire and the Humber saw the biggest rise in numbers with 4.2% more officers over 12 months.

The figure for the whole of England and Wales was up from 139,728 the previous month, with a rise of 3,253 officers (2.4%) compared with one year earlier.

There were also 4,127 community support officers at the end of September 2004, up more than 100% since September 2003.

However, the number of traffic wardens decreased by nearly 16% over the same period.