01/10/2026
“Continually recruiting people through the front door while experienced officers leave through the back door is not a sustainable workforce strategy,” the Chair of Surrey Police Federation has said.
Darren Pemble was responding to comments made by the College of Policing that dismissed the number of officers wanting to leave the police service.
Figures show that in the past financial year, 4,751 police officers voluntarily left the police forces in England and Wales – an increase on the previous year, when 4,688 officers left. And – according to the latest Police Wellbeing Survey – three in 10 police officers and staff say they intend to leave policing within the next year.
However Jo Noakes, the interim CEO of the College of Policing, described the risk of officers leaving the service as “relatively low” in her speech at the Police Superintendents’ Association conference last month.
Ms Noakes said: “The data does show that we are still a really, really low turnover sector, and that is of course because it is a vocation. I talk to officers every day who love the job, do a really good job… we just need to be really careful not to take advantage of that and all have a responsibility in that.”
She added: “People come into policing because they want to make a difference, they do make a difference and they love it.”
Ms Noakes’ comments were echoed later in the conference by Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe, Police Reform Lead at the National Police Chiefs’ Council, who said the service had “no problem” recruiting new officers.
AC Rolfe said: “Policing has no problem recruiting. Attrition is tracked clearly and tracked better than other public sectors.” While she said the service must be “alive” to the numbers of people leaving, she said it was “better than other sectors”.
But Darren Pemble responded: “I was extremely disappointed to hear concerns about officers leaving policing being played down. There is a real danger of senior policing leaders burying their heads in the sand.
“Jo Noakes from the College of Policing acknowledged that policing must be careful not to take advantage of the fact that officers see the job as a vocation. That distinction is really important. The fact that somebody has not yet resigned does not mean they are happy, healthy or committed to spending the rest of their career in policing.
“The latest figures should concern all of us. We have survey evidence showing that significant numbers of people are contemplating leaving. That does not mean every one of them will resign tomorrow, and we should be honest about that. But dismissing intention-to-leave data because everyone has not yet walked out of the door completely misses the point.”
Darren added that police chiefs should be worried about the loss of experience: “Nearly half of all PCs now have five years’ service or less, and the Federation is hearing examples of relatively inexperienced officers being expected to tutor and support even newer colleagues.
“You cannot replace a 15- or 20-year officer simply by recruiting a new PC. You lose their judgement, investigative experience, local knowledge, mentoring ability and the confidence that comes from having dealt with difficult operational situations repeatedly. That affects everybody. It places greater pressure on the supervisors and experienced officers who remain, increases workloads, and ultimately risks affecting the service we provide to the public.
“We also need to ask why people are thinking about leaving. Federation evidence has consistently pointed towards low morale, low pay, high workloads and poor work-life balance among the factors reported by officers considering resignation.
“I speak to our members in Surrey, and I hear about exhaustion, cancelled rest days, financial pressures, trauma, and officers increasingly questioning whether the sacrifices policing demands of them and their families remain worth it.
“The danger is that policing has historically relied upon officers’ goodwill and their sense of vocation to keep the wheels turning. We cannot mistake officers’ dedication for evidence that everything is fine. Policing may still attract people who desperately want to make a difference. The challenge is making sure that 10, 15 and 20 years later they still want to be here.
“Recruitment numbers might make a spreadsheet look healthy, but continually recruiting people through the front door while experienced officers leave through the back door is not a sustainable workforce strategy. My message is simple: stop asking whether we can recruit enough officers and start asking why we are struggling to keep the excellent officers we already have.”
