Region's thin blue line bolstered with over 600 new police officers

The Home Office says West Midlands Police has had an uplift of 357 officers in the first year of the campaign, which aims to bolster officer ranks by 20,000 over four years.

Staffordshire Police has 72 more officers on duty, while West Mercia Police has recruited its full first year allocation of 93 new officers. Warwickshire Police has 91 extra officers, according to the figures.

It means a total of 613 additional officers across the region have been brought in – which Home Secretary Priti Patel says has helped exceed the first year recruitment target for the 43 forces in England and Wales.

The campaign has seen 6,620 new recruits brought in. Along with those filling existing vacancies or joining forces as a result of other job adverts, 14,585 new officers have joined up.

Dudley North Conservative MP Marco Longhi said he was "delighted" to see the extra officers on the beat in the West Midlands.

“Every one of these officers will make an enormous difference in helping to cut crime and keep people safe in Dudley – and I know that many more will follow.

“By backing our police with the funding, powers and resources they need, we are keeping the public and our communities safe, so that people everywhere can live their lives free from the fear of crime."

Michael Fabricant, the Tory MP for Lichfield, said it was "really good news for law abiding residents" that there were now "more frontline officers on our streets to keep the public safe".

“These figures confirm that the Government remains fully on track to meet its commitment of recruiting 20,000 extra officers by 2023.”

David Jamieson, the Labour Police and Crime Commissioner for West Midlands Police, said: “I am pushing the government to increase our recruitment target for next year and to come forward with our allocation for the next two years as soon as possible so we can get on and recruit much needed officers.

“Unfortunately we don’t expect to get back to the levels of officers in 2010, having lost 2,200 officers before the uplift.

"The current indication is we will only get half the numbers back, although I am pushing to increase that number.”

He added: “We are continuing to recruit and I want people from all of our communities to consider becoming a police officer."

The Home Secretary has also announced an additional £20 million from the Safer Streets fund to help crack down on ‘neighbourhood crimes’ such as burglary, robbery, theft and vehicle crime.

It will be open to both PCCs and local authorities and is aimed at crime cutting interventions in residential areas.