Number of police officers in the UK 2023, by police force

London's Metropolitan Police is by far the largest police force in the United Kingdom with 34,889 officers in 2023. At 16,615 officers, the Scottish police force has the second largest force in terms of officer numbers, followed by Greater Manchester police force, which had 8,014 officers in this year. Although the Metropolitan Police cover policing in most of Greater London, the City of London Police force are responsible for the historic center of London, which is around one square mile in size, and numbered 1,001 officers in 2023. 

 Crime in the UK

In 2022/23 there were approximately 6.74 million crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales, the highest number of crimes recorded in a reporting year between 2003 and 2023. Although crime declined from the mid-2000s to the mid-2010s there has been a noticeable increase in crimes from 2014/15 onwards. In terms of the crime rate, England and Wales had the highest in the United Kingdom, at 93.6 offences per one thousand people, compared with 52.8 in Scotland, and 58.4 in Northern Ireland. 

Cuts to policing reversed in recent years

Between 2010 and 2017 the number of police officers in the UK fell from 172,000 officers to just 150,000. During this same period, the London Metropolitan Police saw officer numbers decline by around 2,000 officers. The fall in police personnel was a result of UK-wide funding cuts, during this time period, with police expenditure falling from 19.3 billion in 2009/10 to 16.35 billion by 2013/14. This policy has since been reversed, and the current UK government is seeking to recruit more officers and generally spend more on the police service. As of 2023, there were 171 police officers in the UK, and government expenditure on the police service was 25.3 billion British pounds.