President Paul Griffiths has responded to the latest policy pledge from Conservative Leadership candidate Boris Johnson, who has promised to increase police officer numbers by 20,000 over the next three years:

“Two weeks ago, I wrote to all Conservative Party leader candidates, urging them to place policing at the heart of their plans for potential leadership.
 
It is encouraging to see that one of the remaining two candidates has now pledged to boost police officer numbers over the next three years, however, we also need to see that whoever takes on the leadership of our country, is committed to a long-term response to policing which is struggling to provide the service the public deserves.
 
There is no doubt that we need to replace the huge losses our police forces have seen in terms of workforce, but simply plugging gaps and providing one-off funding injections is not enough to address the issues that we as an Association, along with our colleagues have repeatedly described.  

Policing reform must continue to be a fundamental part of any new party policy, but I speak with confidence on behalf of my colleagues across the country when I say that it must be reform built on a firm and genuine commitment to rebuilding a Service fit for today.”