Failure to recover police officer numbers in NI unimaginable, Boutcher says
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The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has launched a recruitment campaign, with Chief Constable Jon Boutcher warning that a failure to recover officer numbers would be “unimaginable”. Amid an ongoing budget crisis, the force currently has 6,300 officers, the lowest number in its history.
Mr Boutcher said he needed more officers to ensure people in Northern Ireland were given the same level of protection as in the rest of the UK. This is the first recruitment campaign to shortlist candidates to the PSNI merit pool since 2021. There will be a three-week advertising campaign aimed at attracting new recruits to embark on a 22-week training programme.
Starting officers would have a salary of £34,000. Mr Boutcher has said he wants to grow the force to 7,000 officers in three years. This, along with the recruitment of additional civilian staff, would require an additional £200 million in funding. This money would have to be agreed by Northern Ireland’s powersharing Executive.
Mr Boutcher said what he was doing was “responsible planning”. He added: “We last went out for recruitment in 2021. That pool of people that was successful in being selected has now almost run dry. “When I became chief constable we had not been recruiting for a while because of financial challenges.
“We started recruiting in April last year. We recruited because we are in such a challenging position with our numbers. “We can’t go below what we are currently at, which is 6,300. “We lose about 350 police officers a year through retirement and normal reasons for leaving.
